Apr 7, 2026, 8:18 AMhere's a free idea: RAM shortage jam, where you have to make a game for a system with low RAM capacity. like maybe less than 128mb or something
edit: OOM jam is a much better name than what i came up with https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@aeva/116362518081235814
@eniko So, fantasy consoles or graphical calculators?
Apr 7, 2026, 8:20 AM
@devlin @Ronflaix @eniko A long time ago, in an empire far away... Has this already been done: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.kkrieger
Apr 7, 2026, 9:12 AM
@eniko It's clearly indicative of how I still haven't entirely adjusted to the scale of modern systems that 128MB does not sound "low" to me even though it's probably in the "good luck even booting" size for today's OSes.
I just checked and Animal Well is 33MB (windows exe), so even though things tend to be huge nowadays you can obviously still do a lot with well under 128MB... at least of binary image... unsure if Animal Well would actually *run* in 128MB...
@eniko Well, it's a DRAM shortage, so the obvious target system would be something with only good old SRAM.
VIC-20 time! 3.5K of STATIC RAM available to BASIC!
@eniko like a GBA ?
Apr 7, 2026, 8:39 AM@gkrnours exactly like a GBA
(tbh i just looked up the RAM in a PSP and doubled it lol)
@eniko for a minute I had mixed my units and storage technologies (GBA can have 32MB of rom). Turn out the DS had only 4MB of ram and the 3DS 128MB + 6MB of vram.
but I have a soft spot for the GBA, the simplicity of a color 240x160 screen and 10 buttons
Apr 7, 2026, 8:37 AM@eniko i like that threshold. 128 megs is positively roomy for us custom engine folks but haw good luck submitting anything made in unreal or electron or whatever
Apr 7, 2026, 8:38 AM@eniko each successive jam should lower the threshold a touch until we find the sweet spot :3
Apr 7, 2026, 8:38 AM@eniko "oom jam" has a nice ring to it
Apr 7, 2026, 8:39 AM@aeva oh that's a way better name than what i came up with
@aeva @eniko I love the idea of progressively tightening the memory constraints... 128MB is a lot... the playstation 1 had like 2MB+1MB vram (if you include vram), the ps2 had like 32MB+4MB vram. The gameboy has 8KB+8KBvram, [up to 128KB with expansions on-cart (yay bank switching!)] which I think is the smallest I've done anything on.
Apr 7, 2026, 9:02 AM@miss_rodent @aeva tbh i came up with 128mb by taking the PSP's amount and doubling it, it was not a very rigorous process >_>
but i figured it would exclude most "basically a modern OS but just doesn't get security updates anymore" type platforms
Apr 7, 2026, 9:12 AM@miss_rodent @aeva nebulous space sounds good to me
Apr 7, 2026, 8:58 AM@aeva @eniko How one would measure the RAM usage of a PC game? /gen
Asking because memory management is weird on modern OSes with all the shared libraries, caching, swap spaces and whatnot - like I tried running my game and htop reported 282 MB reserved but the total RAM used went up only by ~100 MB or so, which makes it hard to figure things out unless one is deliberately targetting a non-PC platform that fits the RAM cap (which is super cool but I am probably too skill issued for that)
Apr 7, 2026, 8:59 AM
Apr 7, 2026, 8:37 AM
Apr 7, 2026, 8:47 AM@heals @eniko @aeva Maybe there should be game jams with different memory classes
One memory class to force you to write the game in hyperoptimised arcane C, one to force you to write a custom engine, and one open to lightweight existing game engines.
I'm kinda already looking forward to seeing what magic you can do with hyperoptomised arcane C
@eniko i mean... my computer from 2008 or so had 2 gigs of RAM already, so even whatever second-hand hardware you manage to scrounge up these days will be able to do far better than 128 MB
@eniko there's already a ton of very retro game jams out there and i don't mind another one but let's not pretend running Electron is suddenly an unaffordable luxury
Apr 7, 2026, 8:42 AM@ratsnakegames limitations are a fun challenge
@eniko yeah, but this limitation just boils down to "you can't run tech stack X/Y/Z" and that doesn't feel very inspiring to me. Just kinda means people with some skillsets are in and people with others are out.
Just my two cents though.
Apr 7, 2026, 8:48 AM@ratsnakegames tech stacks are memory hungry. the entire point is to do more with less. i'm also excluding all the semi-modern personal computing that's pretty much just a normal modern environment except with an old OS that no longer gets security updates
Apr 7, 2026, 8:41 AM@eniko
That takes me back... to the Apple II+
Apr 7, 2026, 8:45 AM@eniko I really want this to happen now.
I wonder how Löve fares in whether it fits the memory limit. It's smaller than Unity and (probably) bigger than a custom engine.
I wonder if Godot fits too
Apr 7, 2026, 8:48 AM@brib have i got some good news for you: https://git.gay/SuperIlu/lovedos
@eniko Or just 128 bytes of RAM like the Atari 2600.
@eniko PFFT .. what about 'retrocomputing' instead and make a game with a system with 64K OR much less ? 😎
@eniko I am still recovering from that 64kb FPS game, Eniko
Apr 7, 2026, 9:43 AM@eniko I am installing FiwixOS (thanks to @nina_kali_nina ), and i note that "the minimum memory recommended is 128MiB". If, you know, one were looking for an OS to host a game.
Apr 7, 2026, 9:48 AM@drj @nina_kali_nina ohhh that's perfect
Apr 7, 2026, 9:45 AM@eniko To my mind, Luanti hits it just right, targeting low-spec hardware. Even an 8-year-old laptop with a weak Intel video chip will play it just fune. A #luanti server will run on a $5 US/mo server. #Voxelibre is the most fun #OpenSource game I've ever played, BTW.
Consider contributing to the already-existing Luanti community, instead of undertaking a new project that will likely take years to finish. They could use help with the most basic things, like cleaning up documentation, etc.
Consider advocating its inclusion into default #Linux installs, becoming the new Solitaire or Minesweeper.