Reminder: Our Public Domain Game Jam Of 1924 Works Has One More Week

from the don't-miss-out dept

Here's a quick reminder that we're running a Gaming Like It's 1924 game jam, asking people to come up with both digital and analog games using newly public domain works from 1924. While the US spent decades not allowing any new works into the public domain, that changed last year (finally!), and now we're slowly getting works into the public domain drip by drip. But what good is a public domain if it's not used to inspire new creative works? So, as we did last year, we're running this contest for the month of January. All the rules are at the link above, but there are lots of great tools and templates out there for anyone wanting to try their hand at creating something.

As always, Duke's Center for the Study of the Public Domain has a great list highlighting some newly public domain works, and there are some concepts and ideas in there that could be turned into really great games -- like E.M. Forster's A Passage to India or Hugh Lofting's Doctor Doolittle's Circus. And, of course, I remain curious if anyone will make a game out of George Gershwin's famed song "Rhapsody in Blue," considering that his family is upset about the whole concept of the public domain, and fought against it for years.

Anyway, here's a chance to have fun and be creative. You don't need to be a game designer. You don't have to come up with something super polished. Just experiment a little and see if you come up with something cool.

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Filed Under: 1924, copyright, game jam, public domain


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  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 24 Jan 2020 @ 3:57pm

    How about a game where you make a shitty Doctor Doolittle movie that flops hard and you have to do creative accounting to fleece investors?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 24 Jan 2020 @ 4:00pm

    Re:

    Hey, someone is probably going to turn their real-life experience into that game! They will probably do it. Sometime in the future. They swear.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. icon
    Stephen T. Stone (profile), 24 Jan 2020 @ 4:36pm

    That premise is too unbelievable.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. icon
    Samuel Abram (profile), 24 Jan 2020 @ 5:15pm

    A "Rhapsody in Blue" game, you say?

    of course, I remain curious if anyone will make a game out of George Gershwin's famed song "Rhapsody in Blue," considering that his family is upset about the whole concept of the public domain, and fought against it for years.

    How about a rhythm game, à la Rock Band or Guitar Hero (or even just Frequency)? A rhythm game seems like it would be the most obvious choice to go with the newly-public-domain "Rhapsody In Blue".

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. icon
    contumacious (profile), 25 Jan 2020 @ 8:37am

    "George Gershwin's famed song "Rhapsody in Blue," considering that his family is upset about the whole concept of the public domain, and fought against it for years."
    Moochers.
    Having said that. I am curious to see what they come up with.
    I find the idea intriguing.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. icon
    PaulT (profile), 25 Jan 2020 @ 7:44pm

    Re:

    The current one or the 1967 flop? If it weren't for Eddie Murphy, this would be a perfect track record of failure.

    At least the books are public domain so there's nothing stopping you from doing this if you really wanted!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 Jan 2020 @ 8:53pm

    Re: Re:

    It could be a flop in multiple times across multiple universes. Moorcockian, even.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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