If you are a gamer, joining the social community GameJolt is a must. Simply put, it is the most underrated gaming service that should be talked about more. There are a lot of amazing games on Game Jolt.
The social community platform for video games, gamers, content creators, and other communities has more than 1 million games.
It is home to hundreds of thousands of game creators and gamers from all over the world. The users on the GameJolt website rank from novice gamers and indie developers to some high-profile influencers and reputable gaming studious in the industry. Even more, there are many artists and animators who provide animation for their favorite game.
History of Game Jolt
Game Jolt was founded by Yaprak and David Decarmine. David was the one who began the development of the project back in 2002. At the time, he was only 14 years of age.
David wanted to create a platform for gamers. He was a gamer himself and wanted a platform where indie games could be discoverable and quickly playable. Another important aspect was that feedback could be provided directly to the developers. This would allow them to continue improving the game.
Game Jolt website was officially launched in July 2004. At the time, it included a public account system, game forum, chat room, and a large database of games. Each video game was uploaded with the permission of the creator.
By 2008, Game Jolt added a game distribution portal for Flash, Java, and Unity games. They started accepting browser-based HTML5 games in February 2013.
In early 2014, Game Jolt Jams was released. It is a service that allows users to create their own game jams that were integrated with the main website. In 2015, a new site was launched with a responsive design, automated curation for games and game news articles, and more.
In November 2014, Game Jolt partnered with popular YouTuber, PewDiePie to announce the Indis vs PewDiePie game jam. Developers had one weekend to create a game with the theme of fun to play, and fun to watch.
Over the years, Game Jolt has partnered with other influencing personalities and YouTube stars to host game jams. In April 2016, they announced the online marketplace.
In January 2022, Game Jolt remove the category adult games from the website. In the email sent to developers, the Game Jolt website stated that it has become a social media platform and had to make decisions around the direction and future of the brand, which included removing games with explicitly adult content.
Over the course of many years, Game Jolt has evolved into a collection of more than 40,000 communities started by gamers. The largest communities on the website exceed 500,000 people.
Game Jolt Competitions and Jams
What makes Game Jolt platform so special is the numerous competitions and jams they host. They have hosted numerous official game development contests with different requirements and rewards.
Now, contests are different from Jams. A contest refers to a competition wherein developers have a single theme their game must follow so they enter the competition.
An ordered subjective top games selection is found either from judging by the staff or by community voting.
Jam, on the other hand, is different. There is an optional theme, which may or may not be judged but with no prizes for the winners.
Jams are hosted on the weekend usually and the idea is to just work on new games or WIPs. The website encourages developers to live stream and post screenshots of what they are developing.
Fun fact: every year since 2015, Game Jolt has made an announcement on April Fools’ Day. Often, that is about implementing features that remain accessible long after April 1st. In 2022, for example, that was backgrounds, and the year before it was voice chat. In 2020, Game Jolt announced the stickers, and in 2018, dark mode.
The Mobile App
In March 2022, Game Jolt launched a mobile application for Gen Z gamers and creators. The social platform kicked off 2022 with 4 million active monthly users across the website, desktop, and mobile app. The mobile app had 100,000 installs pre-launch.
The social platform said, “It is clear to us that Gen Z is tired of generic social media and they want a place specifically for gaming that supports all types of content they are creating, art, videos, thoughts, and live streams all in one place”.
The app is available in both Google Play Store and Apple App Store. When the website launched its mobile application, they gave out PlayStation 5 and Alienware gaming laptop through an in-app contest.
Browsing Games
As we said before, there are hundreds of thousands of games you can find on Game Jolt application. The Game Jolt Client allows you to browse, download, purchase, manage and update your games.
Games on the website are divided by categories. Or genres if you like. Among the many, you can try some action games, horror games, adventure, FNAF, undertale, FNF, RPG, multiplayer, sci-fi, retro, pointnclick, shooter, survival, VR, arcade, and so many more.
How to Play a Game?
How do you play a game on Game Jolt? When you find the game you like, you download a file. It is a .zip file, and all you have to do is double click.
WinZip should automatically open showing all of the contents. Then, you have to extract all the files to any folder you like. Among the files, there should be one with .exe, that is the file you need to run the game you want.
If there is no .exe file, since Windows often hides those, chances are the file has an icon pretty recognizable as the file to run.
That is when you are downloading a game for windows. The same is for Android users and iOS users.
How to Upload a Game?
As we said before, Game Jolt is a platform for gamers and game developers. If you are a game developer, you can easily upload your new game to the website.
Start by registering yourself by entering all the information the website asks of you. After you register, click on your Profile at the top-right corner and then click on Add a Game button.
This will take you to another page, where you need to choose the stage of development of your game. Do not worry, you can change it anytime.
From there, just follow the instructions and you can easily publish your favorite game to Game Jolt.
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