Powerline Guardians: from Jam Winner to Web Game Success

Every BIG Game Jam ends the same way for us. Submissions close, the judges argue over their favorites for a few days, we publish a winners post, and we start planning the next one. But that isn't the end of the story. Back in November 2024, GDevelop BIG Game Jam #6 ran with the theme "Fix It," our first jam built around a multiplayer focus. SlavTeam, made up of TheAvIGOLD and Jurfix, submitted Powerline Guardians: a 3D coop tower defense game set on Mars, where you and your team defend a row of power lines from waves of spiders trying to cut the power to a set of mining drills. Shoot the spiders, repair the wires, keep the drills running until enough ore is collected.

Powerline Guardians is a 3D, multiplayer tower defense game.

Powerline Guardians took 1st place in the Judges' Awards. As part of that prize, the team landed a distribution deal with CrazyGames, a platform where people play thousands of free games directly in their browser, on desktop and mobile, no download required. CrazyGames has gone on to sponsor several of our BIG Game Jams since, putting up cash prizes and distribution deals for the winners.

Polishing a jam game for web success

A game jam build and a game ready for one of the biggest platforms for free web games are two different things. CrazyGames didn't just publish what the team submitted as-is. Their team mentored TheAvIGOLD and Jurfix through the process of getting Powerline Guardians ready for a much bigger audience: tightening performance, smoothing out controls for mouse, keyboard, and touch, and making sure the game held up across devices, as well as expanding the gameplay to keep people engaged.

Powerline Guardians now sits at a 9.1 rating from over 2,450 votes on CrazyGames, and it's been featured on the CrazyGames home page more than once since launch. It runs well whether you're on a phone, a tablet, or a desktop.

Powerline Guardians is doing really well on CrazyGames.

This is the point of the jam

TheAvIGOLD and Jurfix didn't get a one-time prize and move on. Powerline Guardians turned into actual paid work for both of them, and they kept going.

At GDevelop BIG Game Jam #7, the same team took 1st place again with Overtitans: Destroyers of Worlds, picking up another CrazyGames distribution deal along with it. Then at GDevelop BIG Game Jam #8, they won 1st place a third time, with The Great Claim.

This is what GDevelop and these jams are for: a free engine, a recurring event with real sponsors and real stakes, and a path from "I made this in ten days" to "I make games for a living."

Go play it

If you haven't tried Powerline Guardians yet, it's on CrazyGames and on itch.io. Grab some friends, since it's built for coop, and see how long you can keep the drills running.