There is a great video for anyone that is trying the jam first time (and not only!):
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And if you are submitting your first game on jam on itch, it’s good to watch @Asatte tutorial on exporting from Defold:
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We’re happy to announce another talk for the Defold Game Jam 2026 Online Conference! 
Luke Stamplfi, Head of Developer Relations at Photon, will join us with a presentation about Photon, especially about Fusion targeted for developers wanting to use it during the jam, but also more + we’ll have an opportunity to ask questions during the Live Q&A session
It will be the last talk on Saturday, 2026-09-19T17:00:00Z→2026-09-19T18:00:00Z
Google Meet link:
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Hi,
Will you record these meetings, or some at least?
I am quite interested in a lot of them but wont be available at these schedule…
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Yes, almost all of the talks will be recorded and we’ll share the recordings later on on Defold Youtube channel 
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We’re happy to announce the last talk of the Defold Game Jam 2026:
Meet us! Björn Ritzl @britzl and Defold team will be discussing the results of the Defold Survey, future roadmap of Defold and we’ll have a live Q&A session!
Save the date: 2026-09-21T14:00:00Z→2026-09-21T15:00:00Z
Google Meet link:
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A few tips before the theme announcement
Keep your scope small. A simple, finished game with one strong mechanic will usually work much better in a jam than an ambitious project that never reaches the required playability!
Prepare your tools now. You can set up a clean Defold project, input bindings, useful libraries and reusable code before the jam. Explore the built-in Defold samples, project templates, the Examples collection and tutorials on the Defold Learn portal - there is no need to solve every common problem from scratch.
Build your core gameplay first. Try to have something playable as early as possible, then spend the remaining time improving game feel, visuals, audio and UX.
Test your target platform early - especially if you plan to publish to the web, Poki or Wavedash. It’s all easy and well documented, but you may alwasy stumble upon some problems. We’ll be there to help you though, so write to us on Defold Forum or Discord. Don’t discover export, resolution or input problems in the final hour!
Prepare assets upfront. Don’t underestimate sound. Even a few good UI, movement and impact sounds can make a prototype feel dramatically better. Kenney provides free audio and visual assets!
We have also the promised gifts from Ovani for Defold users:
- Sound FX Starter Pack Vol. 1: Sound FX Starter Pack Vol. 1 | Ovani Sound
- Music Sampler Mixtape Vol. 1: Music Sampler Mixtape Vol. 1
- Defold Bundle Builder Defold Game Jam Bundle Builder
The Bundle Builder is a special one for Defold Game Jam participants with unique discounts: 35%, 45%, or 55% instead of regular 25%, 35%, 45% bundle discounts.
Use version control! Two weeks is plenty of time to accidentally break something that worked a day before. 
And finally: have fun and finish something! A jam is a great opportunity to experiment with a mechanic, technology or genre you normally wouldn’t try.
If you’re participating as a team, remember that every teammate should join the jam. One person submits the game, then adds the others as admins/contributors on the itch project page.
Check the jam page for the schedule, rules, rewards, and challenge requirements!
Good luck, have fun, and we can’t wait to see what you make withDefold! 
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going to ask the annoying question (I don’t know if it’s already been said elsewhere)
What’s your stance on the use of AI for art, music, and coding in this gamejam?
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This is mentioned in the game jam rules:
- Reasonable use of AI is permitted during game development, but you should briefly indicate on the game page what specifically the AI was used for.
“Reasonable use” is a bit vague though. Perhaps @Pawel can help clarify what we mean?
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Yeah, it is vague, because we don’t have proper tools to verify if something is AI-generated or not, and we have no possibility to check if the code was AI-generated or written using AI-assistance, but you can bet, that people may recognize AI art and it may affect their judgement. Even though, we just simply do not forbid any usage of AI - this game jam is mainly for having fun! So if it helps you with development, we see no reason to avoid it. We treat it as a tool. The real score of the game depends on your idea, execution, and overall feeling of the game.
thanks @Pawel and @britzl for your reply. I realize this is a sensitive topic. Asking for disclosure on whether AI is used and what is used for is already a step forward. I don’t expect everyone’s honesty, and I realize it’s unverifiable, but it’s better than nothing.
The fact that the score depends only on the idea and execution hence is not influenced by AI usage is a bit naive in my opinion though. I guess this speech has already been made millions of times in all the gaemjams, and I should not care so.. sorry
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No, a typo, thanks for a catch, I fixed it!
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We start the Defold Online Conference with a talk by Andy Tran from Heroic Labs:
So You Want to Add Multiplayer?
A practical introduction to Heroic Labs’ game tech stack
Learn about making multiplayer games, and Heroic Labs solutions for making it easier!
Join us in an hour, here:
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Next talk with Kyler Blue from Wavedash starts in ~half an hour:
Prepare your questions about Wavedash and joins us soon here:
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In an hour we meet with Nitish Borthakur - Revenue Accelerator Specialist, Apps and Gaming at Google with a talk:
Monetizing on mobile: what changes when your web game becomes an app + Live Q&A
Join us here:
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In an hour we’ll have the last talk today with @Halfstar :
Intro to Post-Processing: Day and Night Cycle Shader
Meeting link:
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Instead of spamming with messages, I’ll share the agenda for the evening, we start in half hour!
| CEST | Title | Presenter | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17:00 | SpriteLoop - a 2D animation workflow for Defold | Samuil Goranov | Meet |
| 18:00 | Poki Presentation + Live Q&A | Erik Dubbelboer | Meet |
| 19:00 | Photon Presentation + Live Q&A | Luke Stampfli | Meet |
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The theme of the Defold Game Jam 2026 is:
CHAIN REACTION 
Interpret it as broadly as you like. It could mean, e.g.:
- dominos, explosions, cascading destruction
- combos where one action triggers another
- spreading fire, electricity, infection, growth or magic, skills
- production chains and interconnected systems
- characters, events or stories influencing each other
- unexpected or expected consequences of choices
- something built around cause → effect → another effect
- and anything else that you can interpret as chain reactions
The theme is there to inspire you, not restrict you - surprise us with your interpretation!
Competition was hard though:
You can use the banners for Defold Game Jam, when you’ll be posting and sharing stuff on social media and blogs (use hashtags #DefoldGameJam and/or #MadeWithDefold) :
You have 2 weeks. Good luck, have fun, and make something amazing with Defold! 
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@Pawel What a cool theme! I’m currently in the process of building a battle system with the Chain Reaction theme in mind, but our question is; is it allowed to add this to the Dungeon Crawler (already in progress) while submitting it to the Game Jam, or do you prefer it being a stand-alone mini game just for the Jam?
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