Here at GitHub, we're no strangers to hosting or sponsoring hackathons. With the growing number of games and game development resources on GitHub, we thought it was about time to throw our very own game jam!

You have the entire month of November to create a web-based game loosely built around one or more of the following:

• forking (or forks)
• branching (or branches)
• cloning (or clones)
• pushing
• pulling

Please note: an additional secret theme will be announced Nov 1st! Please tweet your suggestions mentioning #ggo12 and we'll pick the best!

What do we mean by loosely based on these concepts? We literally mean, loosely based. Some examples might be

• a FPS where you throw forks at water balloons
• a RPG where you walk about pushing people
• an educational game about DNA cloning
• a text adventure about monkeys swinging from branches
• a platformer where you push and pull objects

Your game. Your rules. You can participate as an individual or as a team.

We'll have a number of categories e.g. Best Use of Open Source, Best Student Project, etc. Winners of each category will win shiny new iPads with Retina displays (64GB wifi models), or if you'd prefer an iPad mini or money towards a Macbook Pro, we'll give you Apple Store Credit for the value of the iPad. Runners up will receive a package of GitHub swag.

If you have a team submission, we'll give you Apple Store credit equal to the value of the iPad. You can split it with your teammates as appropriate.

All participants will receive a limited edition Coderwall badge! Winners and runners up will also receive a special Coderwall badge.

We have a number of awesome judges who graciously volunteered to take a look at all the entries!

• David Czarnecki, Lead Engineer at Agora Games
• Eric Preisz, CEO of GarageGames
• Matt Hackett, Co-founder of Lost Decade Games
• Lee Reilly, Gamer Dad and Software Developer at GitHub
• Romana Ramzan, Denki's Player Champion. PhD Researcher. Organiser of Scottish Game Jam.

• To qualify for entry as an individual you must fork the github/game-off-2012 repository to your individual account
• To quality for entry as a team you must fork the github/game-off-2012 to a free organization account
• If you want to qualify for the student prizes, please ensure that you have a verified academic email address on file.
• All entries must be web-based i.e. playable in a browser. HTML5, WebGL, Unity, Torque 3D, Node JS, Flash is all possible - just be sure the source is made available on your fork.
• You must be over the age of 13

• If you don't already have a GitHub account, sign up now - it's free!
• Fork the github/game-off-2012 repository to your individual account (or to a free organization account)
• Be sure to follow @github on Twitter for updates
• Looking for a team? Use Twitter hashtag #ggo12
• Make sure your code is pushed to the master branch of before Dec 1st!

• Make sure you have a README file with a brief description, what open source project (if any) you used, and a screenshot.
• Your repo should have a brief description and a URL where the game is playable (this will make our judging process easier):

Winners will be announced before Christmas 🎅

New to Git, GitHub, and/or version control? Check out our help documentation to get started!

• Questions about Git/GitHub? As always, please email [email protected] and be sure to include 'GitHub Game Off' in the subject.
• Questions specific to the GitHub Game Off? Please create an issue.
• Please use Twitter hashtag #ggo12.