Round 1! FIGHT!

It's that time of the year again--the time to raise your fists and make a brawler and the theme is...

** ALL OR NOTHING! **

YEAH! Go for broke! Roll those dice! Go all in! How to interprete the theme is completely up to you—as a mechanic? As a character trait? As an aesthetic choice? As something else entirely? As a bonus for overcoming 300 entrants before the jam even started, a secret secondary theme was unlocked:

CATGIRLS

(catboys are accepted too)

This secondary cattastic bonus theme won't be used as a judgment criterion, won't be used to grade the games and is absolutely, completely, irrevocably optional, but I made a bet about the number of entrants and now I have to include it, so it is what it is.

So, fighters ready?

E N G A G E!

Here comes a new challenger!

Starting March 31, 2026 and ending May 1 2026, you have one month to make a fighting game following the above theme. Since there are too many definitions of the term, here's what we want to see in this jam:

• A competitive versus game 
• That functions completely with just two players
• Which allows for 1v1 matches in a functional local versus
• With real-time interactions and movement
• Taking place in the same screen (no split-screen, no "one screen per player")
• With at least 2 playable characters
• With the goal of knocking out your opponent
• Has full keyboard support and (strongly recommended) controller support for every player. 
  • Implementing either split keyboard or controller + keyboard for local versus is a required feature
• And can run in windowed mode

Optional features (not required)

The following are nice-to-haves that are strictly optional:

• Remappable controls
• Online versus
• Training mode
• CPU opponents
  

Contribution rules

Each participants can contribute to as many projects and games as they want, but they can only submit one game as team lead and only lead one team! For all other group projects they contribute to, another member must function as main contributor/team leader. 

The assets for your game must be either custom made or from public asset packs--games using ripped sprites or sound effects are not eligible for the jam.

Also, your game must be made explicitly for this jam. Games that were in development before March 31, 2026 are not eligible to take part in. You are allowed to tweak your engine or framework beforehand, but the production of your own custom assets (graphics, musics, SFX...) and the implementation of the characters must be started after March 31, 2026.

You can take part alone or in a group, with no size limit. You are free to use any engine or framework, as long as the game can run on a Windows PC (web export is also acceptable).

For questions or finding teammates, you can either post in this itch community page or, alternatively, join the Indie FG Dev Discord at this invite link  (warning: spammers will be banned on sight).

Submission rules

By submitting a game to the jam, you confirm that:

• You didn't use generative AI in ANY part of the development process (included, but not limited to, sprites, models, sound effects, music, coding, concept art or brainstorming). This ban includes the usage of Claude Code, Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT, Gemini and all equivalent tools.
• You didn't use assets from other games or projects without permission
• Your game is not a fan game of an existing brand or intellectual property, unless  A) you obtained explicit written permission from the original IP owner and B) you created all the derived assets from scratch (see previous point too)
• Your game doesn't contain any racist, bigot, homophobic, or transphobic content
• Your game is Safe for Work and Safe for Streaming
• Your game doesn't feature any real, living people without their explicit consent
• Your game didn't start development before March 31, 2026, except for coding part of the engine/framework you used for the jam

Scoring

The games will be scored by a jury on the following categories:

• Fun factor
• Adherence to the theme
• Game Feel
• Innovation
• Character design
• Presentation (Graphics and Audio)
• Features

Useful resources

Fighting game engines

• Castagne (Godot3, Godot 4)
• Sakuga Engine (Godot 4)
• IKEMEN GO
• Night Sky Engine (Unreal)
• Platform Fighter Engine (GameMaker) 

Fighting game templates

• Blast Harbour's sample project (Godot 4)
• GGMR sample project (GameMaker)
• Fighting game input buffer (GameMaker)

Sound effects

• Osabisi doujin library: 
  • https://osabisi.sakura.ne.jp/m2/tm4/se_001.html
  • https://osabisi.sakura.ne.jp/m2/tm4/se_new.html
• Freesound (CC0, CC-BY resources): Freesound.org
• Chiptune generators: 
  • https://www.bfxr.net/
  • https://sfbgames.itch.io/chiptone
  • https://jfxr.frozenfractal.com/
• GDC sound packs: https://sonniss.com/gameaudiogdc/

Music

• CCMixter
• Free Music Archive

Announcer voice

• Metawatt's Fighting Game Announcer packs (CC-BY-ND): 
  • https://metawatt.itch.io/meta-nnouncer-pack-1-normal-version
  • https://metawatt.itch.io/meta-nnoucer-voice-pack-2-dramatic-voice
• MohastGridlock's Fighting Game Announcer pack (CC-BY):
  • https://mohastgridlock.itch.io/fighting-game-announcer-vo

Icons and vector graphics

• Freesvg.org
• Fighting game direction input pack (CC-BY): https://andreajens.itch.io/fighting-game-input-icons-pack

Textures and photos

• Pixabay  (be sure to toggle AI-generated pictures off!)

3D models 

• Sketchfab (always check the license!)

Theory and practice of input buffers

• https://andrea-jens.medium.com/i-wanna-make-a-fighting-game-a-practical-guide-fo...
• https://critpoints.net/2025/02/05/how-to-code-fighting-game-motion-inputs/

Lost already?

If you don't know where to start, you can have a look at these slides with some links to various resources at the end.