A song is the whole theme of thatgamejam #02
thatgamecompany's two-week jam asks entrants to turn a piece of music into play, with $10,000 across five prizes and no rhythm games required.
- When
- Submissions open through Sat., Nov. 7, 2026, 11:59 p.m. PT
- Where
- Online, through itch.io (TapTap for developers in China)
- Cost
- Free to enter
The theme of the second thatgamejam is a piece of music. thatgamecompany released it with the announcement video on Oct. 24 and gave entrants two weeks, until Nov. 7, to turn what the track makes them feel into a game. Any genre counts. The rules say outright that nobody has to make a music or rhythm game, or even put the track in their entry.
The thatgamejam #02 announcement, with the theme track. The full recording is on the jam page. Video courtesy thatgamecompany.
The track was composed by Jason Grace, and the full recording is free to download from the jam page. Anyone who uses it has to use it unmodified: no remixes, no samples. A cover or an original score is fine.
It is a fitting prompt for the studio behind Flower, Journey and Sky: Children of the Light, games built so that strangers feel something together without a line of dialogue. Jenova Chen, the studio's CEO and creative director, said in the announcement that the studio picked a theme you hear because "sound doesn't need translating." The jam follows the September launch of thatgamepublisher, which we covered as Sky money going toward other people's emotionally ambitious games.
Five cash prizes total $10,000: Best Overall ($3,000), Best Gameplay, Best Visual Design and Community's Voice ($2,000 each), and TapTap's Choice ($1,000). Studio staff review every entry and Chen evaluates the finalists. The community vote runs on itch.io from Nov. 8 to Dec. 11, and winners are announced Dec. 22.
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