Unreal SF Game Jam Kickoff @ Gray Area | Monday @ 5PM

Unreal SF Game Jam #UESFGJ

Pizza, swag, prizes provided by Epic Games!

In person kickoff event June 16th

Winners announced July 21st

7 day event

All skills and skill levels welcome!

Submissions and voting will be through Itch.io.

Theme will be announced at kickoff event June 16th.

Unreal SF Game Jam RSVPhttps://communities.unrealengine.com/events/details/epic-games-san-francisco-presents-unreal-sf-game-jam-gray-area-monday-5pm-2025-06-16/

When:
June 16th ‘25 (in-person)
5pm to 10pm
to
June 23rd (Submit Online)
12am PST Midnight

Where:
Gray Area Theater
2665 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

To find a team or ask questions, join our Discord!
Unreal SF Link Tree:https://linktr.ee/unrealsf

Speakers

Ramen VR | Creating tools for UE developers
-Why we’re making Aura and what Aura can do

Mark Girouard | AAA Game Design Industry Veteran
-Scope & Creep Management

Gorka Games | Unreal Engine Content Creator
-Game Jam Tips and Tricks

Speaker Links

Ramen VR
-https://www.tryaura.dev/

Mark Girouard
-https://www.linkedin.com/in/markgirouard/

Gorka Games
-https://www.youtube.com/@GorkaGames

Rules

Team Max Size limit: 3

Unreal Engine templates allowed

FAB asset packs and plugins NOT allowed

AI generated art NOT allowed

Sponsors
Epic Games | Simulation Sessions
Gorka Games | Aura + Ramen VR

Objective:

Your objective is to spend a week creating a prototype that can be played through in 10 minutes or less.

Optional Guide:

-Day 1 and 2 - Planning and Experimenting - Create a Discord for your team. Create a list of mechanics that fit the theme, pick a decision maker, Pick from that list of mechanics to be implemented. Decide who is in charge of specific features. Create a simple roadmap for when these features should be done. Create a project page on itch.io. Decide on how you will share the project (source/version control); Perforce is recommended and integrates nicely with Unreal Engine. Experiment and learn to fill missing knowledge.

-Day 3, 4, and 5 - Implementation - Trust your decision maker, be proactive, ask questions, and do your best. Also be considerate and patient; Game Jam short deadlines tend to make team experiences very intense. That's a good thing! Remember that how you conduct yourself as a teammate will be remembered beyond this week.

Day 6 and 7 - Polish - IF your core experience is finished and there are NO BUGS, create your own art, SFX, 3D art, VFX, UI art, to direct your players. Make objectives more clear and tell your players when they are doing the right or wrong things. Allow for time to Zip and upload your project, and fill out the Submission details in Itch.io.

When in doubt, trust your decision maker.

When the game jam is finished, hopefully UESFGJ has walked you through creating a solid prototype that has lots of potential, and maybe you made friends in the process! Now would be the time to connect if you haven't already and plan next steps.

UESFGJ on Itchiohttps://itch.io/jam/unreal-sf-game-jamSupplemental materials:

Ari Arnbjörnsson - Kill the Hitch talk from Unreal Fest 2025https://dev.epicgames.com/community/learning/tutorials/6XW8/unreal-engine-the-great-hitch-hunt-tracking-down-every-frame-drop

Christina Wisdom - Quick Ways For Speeding Up Workflow | Inside Unrealhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRGaDGiGb7Y&t=1813s

Gorka Games - Unreal SF Game Jam Tips and Trickshttps://youtu.be/KgGMrO5ihZI?si=ZQAbvkEzinjwWkhw

Astrotect Interactive - Perforce Onboardinghttps://docs.google.com/document/d/1_smROmfQ_1p6aeVYzRIPkuDchDaP-HEMPaX7wNGAhqM/edit?usp=sharing

Agenda

---

Hosted By

Ari Kalinowski, Community Leader

www.delta.center

△ARK is an experimental atelier that explores near and far future scenarios where biological and ecological systems interweave with computer networks at the human and civic scale, often in the context of dramatic climate change (or cataclysm).

The studio draws influence from the Jewish Mystical tradition, ecological movements, post-cyberpunk literature, manga and anime, Japanese poetry and post-industrial music from China.

Robert Grasso, Game Designer

I am a Game Designer with 10 years of experience from modding to indie projects with 2 shipped titles as of Dec 2023. I am passionate about building gameplay experiences that inspire and introduce new ideas. Love sharing my passion by offering crash courses and tutoring for Unreal Engine.

Matthew Guay, AI and Games Lead

✨🦃✨

Samuel Higgwe, Founder | 3D Archviz Artist

Architecture Visualizer

3D Artist and Virtual Reality Creator

Computation Design Artist

Metaverse Architect

Sam Green, Unreal Education

Complete your event RSVP here: https://communities.unrealengine.com/events/details/epic-games-san-francisco-presents-unreal-sf-game-jam-kickoff-gray-area-monday-5pm-2025-06-16/.