If you’re an indie developer or gamer, it’s almost a guarantee that you’ve heard of and probably frequent Itch.io. The site is filled with self-published games created by incredible developers, and yet mainstream media seems to ignore it entirely. Thankfully, there’s one large creator putting a huge number of eyes on the site right now: Jacksepticeye. 

His inaugural Game Jame event, coined Jamsepticeye, is hosted by both Jack and Ducky Dev. It was announced on September 17 and began in full swing on October 1. Almost 6,000 developers have thus far signed up to take part in the event, and submissions are already being submitted for everyone to try. 

Who is Jacksepticeye?

Jack – real name Sean McLoughlin – is a long-time YouTube content creator with a staggering 31 million subscribers on his main channel. He’s been in the business since 2012, though he began the climb to his current heights of popularity between 2015-2016, becoming close friends with the likes of Markiplier and Pewdiepie. 

Jack has always been a staunch supporter of indie developers, and one of his first majorly successful series was a playthrough of Happy Wheels, developed by Fancy Force. The series includes over 100 hilarious (and very loud, Jack was quite shouty back then) videos uploaded over the span of three years, although he did revisit the game a couple of years back for nostalgia’s sake. He’s also well known for his Undertale playthrough, an indie game by Toby Fox that needs no introduction.

I’ve been subscribed to Jack since around 2015, and there have been a lot of changes in his life since then. He’s been brutally honest about his struggles with burnout and grief, taken breaks from content creation, created successful clothing and coffee companies, and made millions for charity through his holiday live streams. Through all of that, he remains firm in his support of indie developers.

Why Jamsepticeye is good for indie developers

Let’s be honest, as a content creator, it’s highly likely that Jack will feature at least some of the potentially thousands of entries in videos that he creates, as well as potentially share some across social platforms where he also has millions of followers. Even if he doesn’t do either of those things, there are currently millions of people watching Jamsepticeye as it happens, and those eyes are seeing games from developers that they originally would never have heard of.

For such a huge name in the gaming sphere to offer that chance to be seen to underappreciated or unknown developers is a massive and beneficial move on Jack and Ducky’s part, but the fact that it’s a Game Jam on Itch.io is even better. 

As I alluded to before, many mainstream gaming sites and media don’t really acknowledge Itch.io as the treasure trove it truly is. I’ve seen this first hand while working in the industry and having my pitches for Itch games refused because “they’re not likely to bring in clicks”. As you should know by now, I support indie developers wherever they choose to upload, and I’ll let you in on a little secret: Most of the clicks that land on TNT come from Itch.io game articles. 

Away from that slight tangent, while mainstream coverage isn’t often given to Itch.io games, it is given to content creators such as Jacksepticeye, so there is a chance that outlets will pick up on this specific Game Jam and potentially highlight some of the entries, giving them the acknowledgement they deserve. 

TNT will be watching

While I’m nowhere near mainstream, I am an advocate for indies, so you can be damn sure that I will be watching Jamsepticeye and taking note of games that stand out to me. The Jam runs until October 6, so at some point after that, you can probably expect some lists or features to appear about some of the games that have been entered during the submission period. 

The theme of the Jam is “Death is an Opportunity”, so I’m excited to see how developers interpret that in different ways – I have some ideas myself, but I am not a developer and couldn’t code if my life depended on it. Some of the already submitted games look decidedly interesting and off-the-wall, so I’m looking forward to seeing more.