js13kGames 2023 winners 🏆

The twelfth annual js13kGames coding competition, challenging participants to create games in 13kB or less of JavaScript in a month, just wrapped up. This post highlights the top thirteen entries.

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js13kGames is an annual online game development competition that challenges participants to create a themed HTML5 game using only 13 kilobytes of JavaScript. It was founded by GitHub Star Andrzej Mazur aka @end3r and has been running since 2012, attracting developers from around the world.

The competition encourages creativity, optimization, and innovation within the constraints of the small file size, resulting in a wide variety of unique and engaging games as you’ll see from the 13 top-rated entries below.

This year’s theme was “13th century”…

Path to Glory

Great approachable gameplay coupled with great music and sound. I love the little graphical flourishes, like the swaying trees or the rain droplets on the lakes. A wonderful game!

jure

Merlin vs Alfonso

This is fantastic. Super playable, intuitive controls, clear goals. Even deaths were quick, polished, & informative. Great game even without the 13k limit! Amazing job.

richtaur

Casual Crusade

What a superb game! I played this for ages (nearly an hour), getting through to the 'THE ARAGONESE CRUSADE' level, and after that repeated again, I stopped. I'm not sure how much further I was from the end of the crusade? The visuals are brilliant, with cute animations and sound that doesn't outstay its welcome.

photonstorm

Tiny Yurts

absolutely amazing! the art, the sounds, the smooth inputs, the great curvy line merging! what a perfect version of mini motorways. this might be my favourite game I played this year at js13k

McFunkypants

UPYRI

Fantastic work! The graphics are amazing, the ambiance is really well executed, the controls are smooth, and the collision is solid.

jaburns

CASTLE 🏰 ESCAPE (2023)

Love the game, really nice puzzles with some good little jokes and ideas hidden throughout.

roblouie

Super Castle Game

Loved the game, plenty of scope for replayability, found some of the levels tricky particularly J, L, N, O and Q. The game felt really polished, the music was good, the graphics were good and it was easy to control.

picosonic

FEAST NIGHT

Feast Night is well made and it builds up a nice eerie mood as you walk through the woods. I really like the way you interact through nods or shakes, a nice touch for sure! And the twist, I was not prepared for that!

britzl

Knight Dreams

Great game Good combination of runner and platformer, a lot of interesting mechanics. Good controls. Helicopter helmet is really funny) Nice pixel art graphics.

mefist0fel

Robin of Thirteensley

Brilliant, especially the sound effects. Framing it as a retro demo was clever too. The CRT effect adds a lot.

merlinvsalfonso

Fort Knight

Very good game, I really enjoyed playing. The graphics are amazing, the isometric perspective is perfect, the waves are so fun and the music is awesome! Great job!

HomerDilpleu

The Terror of Mongolia

WitchCup1276

Offroad but with witches! Super cool! Love the particle effects, love the graphics, and the racing is quite fun.

roblouie


Congratulations to all the winners and to everyone who made this year’s event possible—all the participants, judges, sponsors, and the folks behind the scenes that keep the website running smoothly. And of course a huge thank you and congratulations to @end3r for organizing another amazing jam.

See you all again next year for the thirteenth edition edition of js13kgames, which is bound to be something really special.

Pst! Get ready to Game Off!

Game Off, the month-long game jam jam challenging individuals and teams to build a game kicks off on November 1. And unlike JS13K, you can use as many kilobytes and whatever languages you like! Join now!

GitHub Game Off 2023 logo.

Written by

Lee Reilly

Lee Reilly

@leereilly

Developer / Marketing / Community at GitHub. Twitter: https://twitter.com/leereilly.

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