01
Pick your studio
Games, interactive fiction, short-form video, and adventures all count equally this week. Open whichever studio matches what you want to make, pictured below.
Weekly Theme
Upcoming
Liminal week · Oct 28
Weekly Theme:Liminal
Build anything: games, shows, stories, adventures, whatever you want, and land in the weekly theme row in the catalog with everyone else who shows up.
Required: read this first
Build in any format, then enter it from Creator Hub.
Building opens Oct 28 · 12:00 PT. Publish to RUN, then enter it from Creator Hub before November 4 at noon PT.
How to enter
Pick a studio, build it, publish.
Any RUN studio counts. Build around this week's theme, publish it, then enter it from this week's card in Creator Hub before the close to land in the catalog row.
02
Build around Liminal
Liminal is a feeling, not a monster. An escape from an office floor that doesn't end, a night-shift story in an empty airport, a found-footage tour of a closed-down mall, a puzzle built from rooms that loop back on themselves. Riff on the hum of the lights, the space between places, the sense that you shouldn't be here. Leave the creatures out; the room is the scary part.
03
Publish and enter
Share it to RUN, then open Creator Hub, find this week's card, click Enter, and pick your project. Do it before November 4 at noon PT; publishing alone doesn't enter it. Keep refining right up to the close; your latest published version is what lands in the catalog row.
While you wait
While you wait
The theme's already out, so you can start planning now. Building officially opens October 28 at noon PT.
Explore the studios
Not sure which format fits your idea? Poke around Game Studio, Story Studio, Video Studio, and Adventure Studio, all run in the browser, nothing to install, pictured below.
Join the Discord
Swap ideas, find collaborators, and see what other creators are planning for Liminal week in #weekly-theme.
About
A weekly prompt for creators of every format.
RUN.labs is a running series of 7-day creative challenges. Every Wednesday we drop a theme, and you have until the following Wednesday at noon PT to build something around it, in whatever format you work in: a game, an interactive story, a short video, an adventure.
There's no prize pool and no leaderboard. Publish your entry, then enter it from this week's card in Creator Hub before the week closes. No forms. The theme's row goes up in RUN's catalog the moment the week opens and stays there until a week after it closes; every entry lands in it once you enter it, side by side, so it's less a competition and more a weekly show-and-tell for whatever the theme sparked in you.
This week's prompt: Liminal. The mall after closing, a hallway that goes on a little too long, a pool with nobody in it, the waiting room where your name never gets called. Nothing is chasing you. That's the unsettling part. A walking sim through a building that keeps rearranging, a story told in a motel that doesn't check anyone out, a slow video tour of a place that shouldn't be empty, an adventure through rooms that loop. Quiet, eerie, and just a little off. Build it in Game Studio, Story Studio, Video Studio, or Adventure Studio, then enter it from Creator Hub.
Theme & rules
What counts as an entry
- To enter: build something on this week's theme in Game Studio, Story Studio, Video Studio, or Adventure Studio, publish it to RUN, then enter it from this week's card in Creator Hub before the Wednesday noon PT close. Publishing alone doesn't enter it, and there's no separate form.
- Made this week: your entry has to be created and published to RUN during the week. Projects started or published before the week opens can't be entered.
- Any format counts: games, interactive fiction, short-form video, and adventures are all eligible under the same theme and the same week.
- All original: your entry must be your own original work made for this week's theme. No clones, no copyrighted characters or assets you don't have the rights to.
- Everyone in the row: there's no ranking and no leaderboard. Every on-theme entry before the close lands together in a row in RUN's catalog during the week.
- Every creator with a qualifying entry earns 5,000 credits. To qualify, your entry has to stay published and public on RUN for the full seven days after the close; the credits land in your account once those seven days are up. One award per creator, however many entries you publish. Credits are for building on RUN: they have no cash value and can't be transferred or cashed out.
- We reserve the right to pull entries that clearly aren't on theme. If an entry has no real connection to the week's theme, we may remove it from the catalog row and withhold its credits, at our discretion. The same goes for anything that breaks the content rules.
- Submissions close Wednesday at noon PT. The catalog row is up from the moment the week opens and stays up until a week after the close.
Schedule
Milestones
Oct 28 · 12:00 PT
Liminal week opens
Building opens in Game Studio, Story Studio, Video Studio, and Adventure Studio.
Oct 28 – Nov 4
Build week
Seven days to build around the theme in any format. Entries land in the Liminal week row in RUN's catalog all week. Drop-in help in #weekly-theme.
Nov 4 · 12:00 PT
Submissions close
Anything published after this won't count.
Nov 4 – Nov 11
Row stays up
The Liminal week row stays in RUN's catalog for a week after the close. Keep your entry published and public until then to earn your credits.
FAQ
Common questions
Is Liminal free to enter?
Yes. Liminal is a free 7-day game jam on RUN. Anyone can join, build a game, and compete.
How do I enter Liminal?
Any RUN studio counts. Build around this week's theme, publish it, then enter it from this week's card in Creator Hub before the close to land in the catalog row.
When does Liminal run?
Liminal runs Oct 28 – Nov 4.