If you’re a homebrew developer (or you’re not one yet but want to learn!) looking for a nice little contest, or simply to release something cool for the PSP, here is the 2022 PSP Game Jam, brought to you by Iridescence and the PSP Homebrew Community.

Update: in a previous version of this article, we stated the prize was a total of $175, but this has been increased to $410 after publication of the article. We’ve corrected accordingly.

Some of you might recall they had already organized such an event back in 2020, and they are back after a hiatus last year. This is a lightweight, lighthearted and fun contest so I encourage everyone to join, even as a learning experience!

In 2020, the winner of the contest was Bloodshot.

What’s the PSP Game Jam 2022?

RE:Start! The 2022 PSP Game Jam is a homebrew contest open to everyone. You’ll have to create a game for the Sony PlayStation portable, and submit it to the contest between October 7th 12PM EST and October 21st 12PM EST. The three best entries, as judged by the community, will be awarded $100, $50, and $25 respectively, for a total of $175 in prizes. The prizes are now as follows:

• 1st: $175
• 2nd: $125
• 3rd: $75
• 4th to 10th: $5 each

This year’s theme: It’s not a glitch, it’s a feature!

From my perspective, the theme should be inspirational to get you started, but then it’s up to your own interpretation. You could build a platformer, an RPG, a sandbox game, etc… There are already 13 participants so it’s already shaping to be a good competition this year 🙂

From the official page of the contest:

All games must be compiled and ready to be played on the Sony PlayStation Portable. If your game runs in an emulator, but not the hardware, your entry will be disqualified. You are allowed to submit a game that is cross-platform. Be sure to use the #testing channel on our discord server! You can use any tool to make a game on PSP.

Submissions will be evaluated democratically based upon the following criteria:

Adherence to Theme: Does the submission reflect the stated theme?
Creativity: How unique is a given submission?
Visual/Aesthetic Quality: Does the game have a coherent and pleasant visual theme?
Soundtrack: Does the game have a quality soundtrack (sound effects, music, etc.)?
Clarity: Does the game make it somewhat obvious what you’re intended to do? (Make sure it’s not confusing for an end user)
Enjoyability: How much do you personally enjoy this game?

Additional Info For Entrants:

It would be appreciated if your code was open sourced and hosted on a service like GitHub or GitLab for others to contribute to your game if they wished to continue your idea. The PSP Homebrew Community encourages open source development! Join the discord! We will set up a channel soon for the gamejam!

Below will be useful links, tutorials, and tools to use:

Toolchain:

PSP Toolchain: https://github.com/pspdev/psptoolchain 
Rust-PSP Toolchain: https://github.com/overdrivenpotato/rust-psp
Zig-PSP Toolchain (zig v0.8.1): https://github.com/zPSP-Dev/Zig-PSP
Installing Toolchains: https://psp-dev.org/doku.php?id=tutorial:toolchain_setup

Interpreters:

OneLUA (lua): http://onelua.x10.mx
LuaPlayerPlus (lua): https://github.com/Rinnegatamante/lua-player-plus
StacklessPSP (python): https://code.google.com/archive/p/pspstacklesspython/
Scratch on PSP Block Editor: https://snap.berkeley.edu/project?username=pspscratch&projectname=ScratchToPSP
Scratch on PSP Interpreter: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/933676293843714068/1018618737550700554/Sc…

Engines:

Gen7 Engine: https://gbatemp.net/threads/gen7-engine-visual-programming-engine-for-switch.522…
Stardust-Celeste: https://github.com/Iridescence-Technologies/Stardust-Celeste

Libraries:

GLib2D: https://github.com/libcg/gLib2D.git
QuickGame API: https://github.com/IridescentRose/QuickGame
OSLibv2: https://github.com/dogo/oslibmodv2.git

Tutorials:

PSP-DEV Text Tutorials: https://psp-dev.org/doku.php
PSP-DEV Video Tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwIRcsl57ziPsDYCi6bgO-W9qqAwuW3Mk
More Video Tutorials (including Graphics, Scratch, QuickGame): Iridescence

Iridescence has published an announcement video on his youtube channel to rehash the details available on the contest’s page:

How do I enter the contest?

1. Go to the contest’s page on itch.io then click on “Join JAM”
2. Check the community’s discord server for help and details