GitHub Game Off 2026: dates, rules and a workflow for any engine

The dates

The jam page gives the deadline and the end of voting in Pacific time; the itch.io submission window shows the same moments in UTC. The countdown on the jam page converts to your own time zone.

How to take part

• •Create a free GitHub account if you do not have one, then select "Join jam" on the itch.io page. You can sign in to itch.io with GitHub.
• •The jam page asks you to "Create a public repository. Store your source code on GitHub" and to "Push your game before December 1 at 13:37 PST." Then "Submit your game on itch.io".
• •A public repository means anyone can see what you commit, including art, models and sound. Before you commit an asset you did not make, check that its license lets you publish it that way.
• •After the deadline "participants will vote on each other's games" in six categories: Overall, Gameplay, Graphics, Audio, Innovation and Theme Interpretation.

What the rules say about tools and assets

• •Any engine, any language: "Use whatever programming languages, game engines, or libraries you like." The page suggests engines such as Godot, Unity, Unreal Engine, Phaser, Bevy and LÖVE.
• •Generated assets: the jam page we read on October 28, 2026 says nothing about them, for or against, and it links no separate rules document. We could not find one. If it matters to your team, ask in the jam's community tab before you start.
• •Because the page is silent, our suggestion is to list on your itch.io page the tools you used and every asset you did not make, with its license. That is a courtesy to voters, not a published rule.
• •What you make with Cosindra is yours: our Terms of Service say "You retain all rights to the content you create using Cosindra", so you can publish it in your public repository.
• •Items someone else made, such as a MotionSmith gallery motion or another user's public MaterialForge material, are not your own work. Credit them like any other third-party asset.

Which Cosindra workspaces fit your engine

Each workspace runs in your browser and exports for the engines below. Cosindra Desktop, the free app that applies results into an open editor, works with Unreal Engine 5.7 and 5.8 only. In Unity, Godot and Blender every result reaches your project as a download.

• •For the other engines and frameworks on the jam page we have no packs. A WorldWeaver GLB is a standard file and MaterialForge maps are plain images, but we have not tested them there.

A jam month with Cosindra

• •Week 1, plan before you spend. On Unreal, BlueprintStudio's planning step is free: describe a system and check the plan before you generate. WorldWeaver's Brief Check is free too and tells you what a terrain brief is missing.
• •Make the big pieces once: the play space in WorldWeaver (6 credits a world), the surfaces in MaterialForge (4 credits a material), and a humanoid character rigged in RigMaster from 18 joint markers you place (15 credits a rig, with 5 free polish rounds).
• •Add custom moves with MotionSmith on Unreal, Godot or Blender: one prompt is 5 credits for all 4 takes.
• •Compare results in the browser and download only what you will ship (see "What is free and what costs credits").
• •Keep a short log as you go: which tool made what, and what you fixed by hand. It becomes the credits on your itch.io page.

The three free tools

They run in your browser with no account, and nothing is uploaded.

• •Texture channel packer: packs AO, roughness and metallic into an Unreal ORM texture or a Unity HDRP mask map, and flips a normal map's green channel between DirectX (Unreal) and OpenGL (Unity, Godot, Blender).
• •UE5 skeleton checker: compares a GLB, glTF or FBX character with the UE5 Manny skeleton. Useful on Unreal, or before you send a character to RigMaster.
• •Steam capsule checker: not a jam tool: if your jam game heads to Steam afterwards, it previews one image at every Steam capsule size.

What is free and what costs credits

A new Cosindra account starts free with no card: eligible new accounts get 50 one-time signup credits, and the free Starter plan adds 30 credits every month, so the first month has 80 credits. That is the normal free start for everyone; we have no jam codes or extra credits to offer.

Starter includes one free download, shared across products, so on the free plan one result reaches a Unity, Godot or Blender project. RigMaster's Apply in UE5, through the free desktop app, is never download-locked. More downloads come with a paid plan (from $9.99 a month for 150 credits) or a one-time credit pack ($5 for 50 credits, $10 for 100 or $20 for 200), whose credits never expire and which opens downloads for 15 to 30 days.

If your team skips generated assets

The Game Off page does not forbid generated assets. If your team wants a game without them anyway, these parts of Cosindra work on what you already have and make no art for you:

• •The three free tools above.
• •BlueprintStudio's free planning step on Unreal: a written plan of a system, which you can wire by hand.
• •RigMaster: it fits the UE5 Manny skeleton to your own humanoid mesh from the joint markers you place, for 15 credits. The mesh stays yours.

Honest limits

• •Cosindra Desktop and its editor assistant work with Unreal Engine 5.7 and 5.8 only. Nothing in Cosindra connects to the Unity, Godot or Blender editor.
• •MotionSmith has no Unity export yet, and BlueprintStudio writes Unreal Blueprint graphs only.
• •RigMaster rigs humanoids only.
• •Generated results are a fast first version. Playtest and fix by hand; voters score gameplay, graphics, audio, innovation and theme.
• •Cosindra is not a sponsor or partner of Game Off, and there are no jam codes or extra credits.

Open the tools

• •WorldWeaver: terrain from a written brief, packs for Unreal, Unity, Godot and Blender
• •MaterialForge: materials from a description
• •RigMaster: a rig for your humanoid character
• •BlueprintStudio: gameplay graphs for UE 5.7 and 5.8
• •WorldWeaver import guide: steps for each engine

Sources

Dates and quotes on this page come from these pages, read on October 28, 2026. Cosindra facts come from our own product. Not affiliated with or endorsed by GitHub.

• •Game Off 2026 on itch.io: dates, how to take part, voting categories; the only official page we found
• •Game Off 2026 community: where to ask the hosts and other entrants
• •Cosindra Terms of Service: you keep the rights to what you make with Cosindra

Frequently asked questions