# Vibe Coding Game Jam 2026 **Donkeycat · April 23rd, 2026** One day. One theme. Everyone ships a browser game that goes live on **donkeycat.com/jam/\/**. --- ## Today's theme: MUSTACHE Interpret it however you want — literal, absurd, hairy, stylish, villainous, historical, whatever. Just make it obvious. --- ## What this is Pull the starter kit, copy the empty template, and build a game inside your own folder. At 18:00 you zip your folder and hand it to the deploy agent — your game is live on donkeycat.com a couple of minutes later. Starter kit: https://donkeycat.com/jam/gamejam.zip --- ## Stack rules - **Entry point is `games//index.html`.** That's the file the website will serve. - **Anything that runs in a browser is fair game:** vanilla HTML/CSS/JS, React via CDN, Phaser, p5.js, Three.js, canvas, WebGL, whatever. - **Must work by double-clicking `index.html`** (file:// URL). If your library refuses `file://`, use the included `./serve.sh`. - **NO API keys in user-visible code.** Never hardcode secrets into `index.html`, JS files, or anything shipped to the browser — they're public the moment you zip them. If you need a paid API, proxy it through your own backend (or a free tier with a per-IP rate limit). - **All paths relative.** Use `./style.css`, never `/style.css` or `file:///Users/you/...`. - **Keep the folder under ~20 MB.** Compress videos or link out to YouTube. --- ## Get started (2 steps) 1. **Copy the starter folder** and rename it (lowercase, dashes, no spaces — e.g. `neon-snake`): ```bash cp -r games/_template games/ ``` Windows: in Explorer, duplicate the `_template` folder and rename the copy. 2. **Double-click `games//index.html`** to open it in your browser. Edit the files, refresh the browser. That's it. No build step, no `npm install`. --- ## Optional: run a local server If your library refuses `file://` (Three.js loaders, service workers, etc.), start a local web server: ```bash ./serve.sh # macOS / Linux / WSL serve.bat # Windows ``` Then open `http://localhost:8000/games//`. --- ## Try the reference game Double-click `games/tictac/index.html`. Classic tic-tac-toe, hotseat or vs. an unbeatable AI. Copy as much of it as you want as a starting point. You can also play it live at https://donkeycat.com/jam/tictac/. --- ## How to deliver your finished game ### Pre-flight (before zipping) - [ ] Your game lives in exactly one folder: `games//` (lowercase, dashes only, no spaces or underscores). - [ ] Entry point is `index.html` **directly inside that folder** (not in a subfolder). - [ ] Double-clicking `index.html` opens the game and it plays with no console errors. If that doesn't work, `./serve.sh` → `http://localhost:8000/games//` must work. - [ ] All paths are **relative** (`./style.css`, `./img/foo.png`) — no leading `/`, no `file:///Users/...`, no `localhost` URLs. - [ ] No API keys or secrets anywhere in the shipped files. - [ ] Loads in Chrome, Safari, and on a phone browser (mobile touch should at least not crash). - [ ] Folder is under ~20 MB. - [ ] `team.txt` is filled in: game name, team members, one-sentence description, controls. ### Submission — just zip and hand it over 1. **Zip your folder.** The zip must extract to a single folder named `/` with `index.html` directly inside it. - macOS: right-click the folder in Finder → "Compress". - Linux/WSL: `cd games && zip -r .zip /` - Windows: right-click → "Send to" → "Compressed (zipped) folder". 2. **Name the zip** `.zip` (same name as the folder inside). 3. **Hand the zip to the deploy agent** (AirDrop, Slack DM, USB, whatever). 4. The deploy agent drops it into donkeycat.com, wires up the route, and deploys. Your game goes live at `donkeycat.com/jam//` within ~2 minutes. ### Sanity-check your zip - Peek inside: you should see `/index.html` at the top level. Not `games//...` and not `//...`. - Double-click the `index.html` inside the extracted folder. If it plays, you're done. ### If something's broken - Works local, broken live → almost always an absolute path (`/style.css` → `./style.css`). - Broken is still a valid submission — ship it anyway. --- ## Troubleshooting - **Blank page when opened by double-click:** you probably used `fetch()` or `import` / `type="module"`. Either inline your data in the JS file, or use `./serve.sh`. - **CSS / JS / images don't load when live on donkeycat.com:** you used an absolute path somewhere. Search your folder for `src="/` and `href="/` and replace with `src="./` / `href="./`. - **Works at `/jam/name/` but not `/jam/name`:** the template includes a tiny redirect snippet that auto-adds the trailing slash on http(s) URLs. If you removed it, put it back — relative paths like `./style.css` need the trailing slash to resolve correctly when served over http(s). - **`./serve.sh` says python3 not found:** install Python 3 from python.org, or on Windows use `serve.bat`, or use any other static server (`npx serve`, VSCode Live Server, etc.). --- Latest rules always at **https://donkeycat.com/jam/**