Tag: Candy Jam

After last week's debacle involving game developer King trademarking the word CANDY, game developers around the world vented their frustrations by participating in the Candy Jam, a game jam event designed solely to passive-aggressively taunt the trademark system as well as King's other embarrassment from last week, being accused of ripping off another developer's game. The Candy Jam website sets its mantra as: "Because trademarking common words is ridiculous, because ethics matter and because it gives us an occasion to make another game jam."Developers have since been working on creating their games, and uploading them to the Candy Jam website for others to check out. While the Candy Jam lasts through February 3rd, there are a good number of games already posted.One of the more polished games posted is Discord Games' Candy Chasm Saga, an endless-faller that involves falling down an chasm filled with candy, attempting to collect as much candy as possible while avoiding crashing into the scary-looking tokens floating about. Magnets are available to scoop up and make your candy-grabbing life easier, and golden apples provide limited invincibility. Candy Chasm Saga borrows art assets from Discord Games' full-time project, Chasm. 

If there's one word I'd use to describe independent game developers, it's… well, independent. They don't like being told what they can't do. So what a big company like King comes along and trademarks a word like 'candy,' indie game devs get understandably grumpy.In response to King's actions (which Gamezebo broke the news about on Monday), Cariboo (developer of the upcoming Berserkgangr) and uuav (check out their Ludum Dare entries here) have just launched Candy Jam, a game jam that tasks developers with making a game that involves candies. Why? "Because trademarking common names is ridiculous and it gives us an occasion to make another gamejam :D," or so says the Jam's Tumblr account.Interested developers must submit their games before the February 3 deadline. The only rules are that it has to have candy, and that you should consider using the word 'candy' several times. Bonus points for other trademark problem words like 'scroll,' 'memory,' 'saga,' and 'apple.'Also, there's always a high five from me if you get the word 'Gamezebo' or 'jimmycanuck' in there somewhere. ;)