Game Jam Eevee Expo Game Jam #10: Overview

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Welcome to the TENTH annual game jam, now hosted by the Eevee Expo team!

For the uninformed: a game jam is an event where developers will get together and make a game. It sounds simple at first glance, but making a good game is much more difficult and time consuming than you might think. Participating in one is a great way to challenge yourself, learn new skills, and polish your overall experience as a game developer.

Nothing was going to stop us from hosting the game jam again this year! This is my fifth summer game jam I've hosted/judged on, I believe, and hitting double digits in the title is a big deal! I'm happy to be able to host the summer game jam and continue on the tradition!

This community is an amazing place, and that's all thanks to each and every one of you. Take pride in that, and your hard work! Let's make this game jam a special one!

Thank you @Chase for creating the graphics for the event!

Game Jam Details

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A staple of our game jams is that there's no mandatory theme required for your entry to follow. You're free to tackle any theme you like, or even forego a theme. Let your creativity shine! We have an optional theme that you can pursue if you so wish.

The main rule is, your game jam entry must be made DURING the game jam. You can collect free-to-use resources and include them in your entry, but anything you or your teammates create for the game jam must have been created after you finish reading this message!

You aren't required to make a game about Pokémon if you don't want to. You also don't have to use RPG Maker XP and Pokémon Essentials! While the game jams hosted here have been mostly Pokémon themed in the past, don't let us stop you from creating a fun game. In fact, I would love to see more original games introduced in the game jam!

You also aren't required to work alone. Feel free to organize a small team of friends to work on your game with you. Group entries are most definitely allowed, and encouraged. We allow a maximum of four people to work together.

As with previous years, we require that any graphics you create for your project be submitted as a Resource Pack in the Resources → Game Jam Packs section of the site. You must also include a credits list with your submission and include one bundled with your entry in a text file. These are a requirement. We do have some additional rules regarding resources, which you can check out in the Summary & Rules section, as well as in the Q&A.

By submitting your entry to us, you give us permission to promote it via social media and if it wins the Spotlight, be eligible for a brand new game badge, or be eligible for one at a later date.


As with previous game jams, we have another optional theme this time around. This has always worked rather well and we typically see a large amount of entries participate, thus we were eager to include another one for this game jam!

This year's theme of "Rebirth" has multiple ways to be interpreted that we hope are explored. Is someone or something being physically reborn? A caterpillar reemerging from a cocoon as a beautiful butterfly? A phoenix rising from the ashes? Speaking of, will the legendary Ho-Oh be involved? Or perhaps it's a metaphorical rebirth, as a character in your game changes as a person after a tragic event! An origami bird being created from a flat piece of paper? A light at the end of the tunnel? Or even something as simple as waking up and making a change in your life so you can grow slowly into becoming a new person! I can't wait to see what you'll make.

For participating in this challenge theme, you'll earn an extra badge along with the other badge for entering the game jam. Participating in this theme won't net you an advantage in judging, but putting a twist on this theme in an unexpected way could impress the judges.

Do your best to use this theme in an interesting way; using it in a low effort/uninvolved fashion will likely not get you the badge. This is up to the judge's discretion.

Summary & Rules

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• There is no mandatory theme requirement for your entry, but there is an optional challenge theme.
• Your entry does not have to be a fangame or use any particular program/engine.
• You may only submit one entry. If you submit multiple entries, only your latest is eligible for judging.
• Group entries are allowed, with a maximum of 4 participants per group.
• You may only be part of one group entry. Playtesting is to be handled by one of your 4 participants, so playtesters cannot be a part of multiple entries.
• Graphical resources created for your entry must be bundled into a Resource Pack and submitted in our Resources → Game Jam Packs section for free public use. This pack will be evaluated and approved when the deadline for the game jam has passed.
• You may not use any material from your past projects, aside from public resources.
• You can only use public resources created before the entry period. If a public resource is updated during the entry period, it is still able to be used.
• List of credits must be included with entry post and bundled with the game in a text file. (credits.txt)
• Submitting an entry means Eevee Expo can promote it via social media and create a game badge for your entry should it win the spotlight, or be eligible for one later on if it does not win.
• When posting your thread, your download link must be linked in the game thread. Your game download link will be removed by staff before posting, and will be returned on the last day of the entry period so that all games have an equal amount of time for judging.

Spotlight Entries & Judging

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Each game jam, the judges pick several entries as the "spotlight entries", which are considered the most interesting and or highest quality entries. There is no first place, second place, and so on.

To do this, the judges will take a look at every game jam entry after playing them all and have a roundtable discussion internally on their thoughts. While there is no set criteria for the judges, you can be sure that they'll take into consideration how interesting each entry is, how fun they are to play, how well they're polished, and what not. It should be noted that the judges will not be publicizing their thoughts on each entry unless they choose to do so.

Developers that receive a spotlight will get an exclusive badge, a game badge for their entry, and will be featured on the Eevee Expo forum. We hope this encourages you to make the best possible entry!

The judges for this game jam are...
@catwithnojob
@ENLS
@Foxowl
@KennyCatches
@luxdiablo
@Saucecoie
And who knows, possibly more!

Badges

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As with every single game jam, we've got some a bunch of badges we're ready to give out this year!

Jam #10 Badge: This badge is given to those who participated in the game jam!
Spotlight Jam #10 Badge: This badge is given to those who participated in game jam and had their game featured in the Spotlight!
Challenge Jam #10 Badge: This badge is awarded to those who participated in the game jam and incorporated the optional theme challenge of "Rebirth" into their entry!

Submitting Your Entry

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When submitting your game, please make sure that you've packaged your game correctly and optimized it by cutting our unnecessary/unused files. For example, Pokémon Essentials fangames have a section on the wiki titled Finalising your game for release.

When the time comes to actually submit your game, take at least six screenshots, put your resources that you've used in a .zip file and upload your game and resource pack to Mediafire or MEGA.

Then post a thread in the Eevee Expo Game Jam #10 forum that has the following details listed below, and your resource pack (see the section below for submitting your resource pack). Feel free to spruce your thread up, it doesn't have to be barebones. Threads will be moved to the other sections (Completed Games and Released Games) when the game jam concludes.

• Game Title
• Game Screenshots
• Made Using
• Team
• Download Link
• Notes
• Resource Pack (a link to the resource containing your game jam pack)
• Credits

Submitting Your Resource Pack

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While you submit your entry, you should have also assembled a resource pack. You must submit your resource pack in the Resources → Game Jam Packs section.

When filling out the details for your resource pack, be sure to mention the entry name in the tag line and description, and link to your entry thread in the resource description. You should also provide a list of credits if people use your resource pack.

Giving your resource an icon is also ideal, but not mandatory.

Q&A

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Q: What rules should I be aware of?
A: One entry allowed per person. You also may not join multiple teams. You may submit your game jam thread at any point during the game jam, but the download link will only become public once the deadline has passed. From this point onwards, you may have the download link wherever you like.

Q: Why is the game jam going on for so long?
A: We've found that a longer game jam yields better results overall. If the game jam was only one or two weeks, you can expect to see much smaller entries by the end. A shorter duration could also conflict with someone's schedule and they could miss it entirely.

Q: Why is the theme optional and not mandatory?
A: Game jams with a focus are great, but we don't want to restrict anyone's creativity. You're free to enter what you like.

Q: Why do I have to include my resources?
A: We want to encourage people to use public resources, showing that you can make a really cool game with them. You're free to make resources for your project, but you have to release them as you submit your game. This is a great way to kill two birds with one stone and get some more resources out there. This also discourages people from using private resources from an existing project.

Q: Can I use resources I've released prior to the game jam for my entry?
A: Of course. You're free to use any publicly available resources. Resources released during the entry period that were created by anyone outside your team are not to be used unless they are an update to an existing resource.

Q: Can I use things from some of my past projects?
A: No, not unless you released it as a resource prior to the game jam.

Q: Can I release the things from past projects that I want to use as a resource and use them for my entry?
A: No, not while the game jam is underway. Please see the previous two questions!

Q: I can only have three other people working with me on my entry, but what counts as working with me?
A: Anyone who has created resources or helped with playtesting for your entry is counted as working with you. Existing public resources don't count towards this.

Q: Am I allowed to seek feedback for my entry? What about play testers?
A: You're more than allowed to seek feedback from outside sources (even publicly!), but your team should be handling your playtesting.

Q: When should I make my game thread?
A: You should post your game thread once your game is complete, and preferably before the deadline has passed. For your game to be approved, it must contain a valid download link in the thread (which will be hidden by staff).

Q: Are ROM hacks permitted? Are fangames permitted? Are original games permitted?
A: Of course! There is no rule that you must use a specific engine, genre, or the like. ROM hacks must be provided in a patch, though. No ROMs may be uploaded!

Q: Why aren't you judging all the entries on a set criteria?
A: While competitive game jams are fun, it's very difficult to grade them all on an even scale without more restrictions such as a mandatory theme. We have chosen not to judge them this way and instead choose some of the best entries for the Spotlight. It is also very time consuming to do so, and we want to get the Spotlights wrapped up as soon as possible.

Q: Can judges enter the game jam?
A: Yes, they can. Any projects they've contributed to will be ineligible to win a judge chosen spotlight, however. They are still eligible for a community chosen spotlight.

Q: Can we update your game before the game jam has completely concluded?
A: Until the community poll has concluded (or until the judge spotlights are revealed and your game won a spotlight), you cannot release any major updates to your game that would affect the community's opinion of your game, i.e. influencing the votes. The judges and the players' votes should be based solely off the initial release of the game (excluding bug fixes etc.)

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For any further questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch or comment in the Discussion Thread!

Eevee Expo Game Jam participants, it's the final two days! Before the end of tomorrow, the August 10th, make sure you have submitted both your entry in this section and your Game Jam Pack in the resources section. Links are above! Please feel free to DM me or post in the Discussion thread with any questions!

And another update, I added a new Frequently Asked Question since it was missing from the first post:

Q: Can we update your game before the game jam has completely concluded?
A: Until the community poll has concluded (or until the judge spotlights are revealed and your game won a spotlight), you cannot release any major updates to your game that would affect the community's opinion of your game, i.e. influencing the votes. The judges and the players' votes should be based solely off the initial release of the game (excluding bug fixes etc.)