You're cordially invited to...
"The 2025 Patrick DeFrancisci memorial fall game jam!"
(demo above made by me in pico 8, but I owe a lot to Daniel Oaks' excellent demoscene guide here)
Hello! You are invited to join a game jam / asynchronous class I'm looking to host between October and November.
The jam is not so much themed as it is centered around two things: Pico-8 and Dylan Bennet's fantastic zine Game Development with Pico-8.
If you're unfamiliar with game jams as a concept, basically they're a challenge, kind of like a hackathon, to make something small and complete in a short span of time and submit it to be showcased alongside the work of other people!
If you are new to game development (and almost everyone I can think to invite is) then I would highly, highly, highly-highly-highly recommend taking the time and making the first 2 games described in Dylan's zine. You're invited to make your own assets, add your own spin, and make the game a submission to the jam, but then, and only then, should you start working on your own concept, when you have some understanding of the core mechanics.
You may also notice that Pico-8 isn't free, unfortunately. Please reach out to me at pdefrancisci57@gmail.com and I can help you out.
As far as timing goes, I would like to keep things pretty short and sweet. I think maybe giving 2-3 weeks to do the tutorial games might be a good place to start, before starting the final submissions in late October. But this is still very much an open discussion.