What do John Romero, Lucas Pope, and Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw have in common? They’re all judging this year’s Indie Speed Run.
At some point, every gamer has the same thought: Wouldn’t it be great to actually make one of these? That’s why game jams are so appealing, such as the Indie Speed Run. Its rules are simple: Participants have 48 hours to create a game using randomly assigned criteria, which is judged by a panel of influential developers. And who are these judges? Gaming personalities like John Romero, Lucas Pope, and our own Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw.
As of this week, any person or team can register at the Indie Speed Run’s website. Once that’s done, you can “start the clock” at any point in October to receive the criteria for your game. Anyone can submit as many games as they’d like until Oct. 31, at which point the games will be hosted at IndieSpeedRun.com and played by the following:
- John Romero – Doom, Quake
- Matt Thorson – Towerfall
- Lucas Pope – Papers Please
- Davey Wreden – The Stanley Parable
- Oscar Jilsén – Goat Simulator
- Andrew Spinks – Terraria
- James Vaughan – Plague Inc.
- Jason Rohrer – Passage, The Castle Doctrine
- Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw – Hatfall, The Consuming Shadow
But it doesn’t stop there. Each judge will choose their favorite game, putting its creators in the running for $5000 in prizes and the chance to pitch for a professional publishing contract. But if we’re being honest, just being able to say “One of Doom‘s creators played my video game” is a thrill in and of itself.
But who knows – maybe it’ll be your game Yahtzee ends up lampooning on Zero Punctuation once you’ve made it big! You can check out the Indie Speed Run website itself for more details.
Disclosure: Indie Speed Run co-founder Mike Kayatta is a former Escapist editor and current friend of The Escapist.
