American McGee’s Pirate Jam is a two-week game jam set at sea

While developing a game can often feel like being cast adrift at sea for a long time, a new game jam aims to take that metaphor to its literal conclusion.

Pirate Jam is the next project from Alice: Madness Returns creator American McGee, and will see dev teams spend set sail from Thailand to spend 15 days on a boat in the middle of the Andaman Sea.

10 of the days will consist of actual game design and development for five hours, with a completed title the aim of the two-week adventure.

However, the event will also throw in ‘pirate games’, which include fishing, diving and – we presume – pillaging passing vessels for their stock of rum.

At the end of the trip, teams will be awarded points not only for the quality of their (hopefully) finished app, but also based on their performance in the aforementioned nautical activities.

Dates are yet to be confirmed, but interested devs can register on the Pirate Jam website fo the chance to join ‘lead pirate’ McGee, who holds a Thai captain’s license, PADI dive certification and has passed a series of ASA sailing courses.

The Spicy Horse team is itself based out of Shanghai, and recently announced that it was downsizing in a pivot away from free-to-play development.