LAG Jam 2025: The Lag Jammer's Waltz

December 4-7th, 2025 on twitch.tv/ladyarcaders

Lady Arcaders Game Jam 2025
PLAY GAMES

LAG Jam 2025: The Lag Jammer's Waltz was Lady Arcaders’ second game development jam! It took place from December 4-7th, 2025. Five teams were formed and all five teams managed to make it to the end of the event! You can see the list of games and play them on itch.io.

Placements

  • First Place: Rhythm Stenography by DICHROME (BunniestBunRena and Buzz)
  • Second Place: MetroGnome by Dlinkey + Gumpy (myserval, twinkachu, keiichiface, girlbastard, and kataraptor)
  • Third Place: Synergy Simulator by Team Name Pending (zibbulax, HockeyBabbler, Melakira, and Vynn)
  • Honorable Mention: DEAD BEAT by Criminal Industries (Metroid Crime)
  • Honorable Mention: Friend/Ships: Disco Dodgeball Saga by ~DIABOLIC ALCHEMY~ (Chafee, Lady Mel, Exxy, Jay)

Thank you to everyone who participated in the event, both to those working on games and to those working behind the scenes!

Pre-event Information

LAG Jam 2025: The Lag Jammer's Waltz is Lady Arcaders’ second game development jam!

The theme for this year’s game jam is rhythm. Take this concept and do whatever you want with it! Any variation of the word applies. You can take it literally or figuratively.

This event will be judged, and there will be prizes for the top three placing games. The judging rubric will be shared ahead of time.

Generative AI is not allowed in ANY FORM. Please disable any automatic code generation in your code editors. Anyone caught using generative AI tools will be disqualified from the event immediately.

If you want to see what last year's game jam was like, you can check it out here!

Event Schedule

The event kicks off officially at 10am EST on Thursday, December 4th, 2025! Every day, the Lady Arcaders Twitch channel will provide public updates about the status of everyone's games, starting at 9pm EST. The game development ceases at 8pm EST on Sunday, and the final showcase at 9pm will feature everyone's "finished" games. The judges will break to make a decision after the end, and will announce the winner.

Participants are encouraged to keep working on their games after the event officially ends! We'd love to show them off on Attract Mode! Do not feel like you have to sacrifice your well being to finish your game during the event, take plenty of breaks and stay hydrated!

In Preparation for LAG Jam 2025

Lady Arcaders will be hosting a series of workshops leading up to the event itself, in order to give people the skills they need to work on their games during the weekend of the jam. You do not need to qualify for the Lady Arcaders private server to teach a workshop!

All teams will meet the weekend before the event to establish an outline and brainstorm/workshop ideas for their game, to make it easier to focus on building the game itself during the weekend of the event.

In terms of pre-event work, teams are allowed to:

  • Brainstorm.
  • Research and study up on how to do/make things.
  • Make basic concept sketches.
  • Write basic story outlines.
  • Set up code repositories and team accounts.

Each team will get their own Discord channel, forum category, and voice chat so that they can discuss their game ahead of time. We ask that you use these channels to discuss details so that staff can follow along and make sure you're on track!

What is a Game Jam?

A game jam is an event where a group of people come together to work on making a game from scratch. You can either apply as a team or as an unassigned individual. All skill levels welcome in graphic design, programming, writing, music composition, and more, or if you're just generally interested in learning!