Invent a
game
Build a board game that runs in a browser. Get prizes, up to a physical copy of your game.
Run by Jeremy Woolley, Hack Club gap year. For teens 13-18, free.
What this is
How it works
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2.1
Join the Hack Club Slack and find #en-passant.
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2.2
Build a board game that runs in a browser.
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2.3
Track your time with Hackatime (so we can measure how long you spent building it).
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2.4
Ship the game, then submit it.
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2.5
Spend your pips in the shop.
What counts
Yes
- a chess variant
- a hex wargame
- an abstract strategy game
- a Go or Othello-like
- tile-laying on a board
- something weird with three players and a hexagonal board
Ask in #en-passant
- card-driven games
- deckbuilders
- dice games
- turn-based with no board
No
- platformers and action games
- anything real-time
- no win condition
- not playable in a browser
- not shipped anywhere public
- a repo with a single commit
You Ship
- a browser-playable board game: a board, pieces, movement rules, a win condition
- a public repo with real commit history
- a README with the rules
- a public demo URL
We Ship
- pips for the time you spend
- multipliers that raise the rate, set out in §4
- a shop where you can spend your pips
- what you buy, mailed to you or delivered digitally
Pips and multipliers
Every hour of tracked time earns 10 pips. Bonuses stack, so all three together is 18 pips an hour.
- A board game two people can play in a browser 10 pips/hour
- Online multiplayer +20%
- A computer opponent with a real algorithm +20%
- Your computer opponent beats me (Jeremy) +40%
Four hours at the base rate is 40 pips, which covers a domain for your game. Ten hours is 100 pips, a Raspberry Pi. The same ten hours with every bonus is 180.
The shop
Spend your pips in the shop! Items subject to change.
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A domain name, one year
Up to $12, stackable
35 pips
digital
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Hack Club enamel pin
45 pips
mailed
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Aseprite
Pixel art editor
60 pips
digital
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Tabletop Simulator
Create and play board games online
60 pips
digital
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Hack Club socks
75 pips
mailed
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Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W
Comes with a Hack Club 64GB microSD card
100 pips
mailed
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YubiKey
USB-C security key for two-factor login
100 pips
mailed
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Onitama
A strategy board game on a 5x5 board
150 pips
mailed
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The Game Crafter grant
Your game, physically made
300 pips
mailed
The Game Crafter grant
Get your game manufactured. You pick the board, the cards, the pieces and the box, and The Game Crafter makes them. 300 pips covers a small boxed game, and more pips buy a bigger one.
More details
The base grant is $100, and you can spend 30 more pips to add $10 to the grant, with no cap.
If direct international shipping is expensive, you can subtract $25 from your grant to ship it via HQ instead.
Games people have shipped
Nobody has shipped one yet
Be the first!Questions
- Is it free?
- Yes. All Hack Club events are free for 13-18 year olds, your prizes will be mailed to you at no cost. (Hack Club cannot cover customs fees)
- Who can enter?
- Anyone 13 to 18, inclusive.
- Do I need Hackatime?
- Yes. We need Hackatime in order to track how many pips you've earned. Set it up here.
- Is a card game a board game?
- Ask for clarification in #en-passant. If it has a board, pieces, movement rules and a win condition, it counts. If it's just a card game with no board, it likely doesn't.
- How many can I submit?
- More than one. Each game is judged on its own hours.
- What do I need to submit?
- A shipped game at a live URL where someone else can play it, a public repo with commit history, a README with the rules, and a screenshot of the game.
- Is this legit?
- Hack Club is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit (EIN: 81-2908499) and has run many programs like this. This one is run by Jeremy Woolley, and the site is open source.