Game Jam Winter Game Jam 4: Overview

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Welcome back to the Relic Castle Winter Game Jam! For a fourth year in a row, winter has settled in (at least in the northern hemisphere) and now it's time to jam!

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.

With eight summer game jams and three of the winter variety, game jams are a tradition for us on Relic Castle! Welcome to the newcomers, and welcome back to the returning game devs! I'm already excited to play through your entries! If you're interested in seeing what previous entrants have created, check out Fox's archive thread.

The fan game community has space for everyone, including you! Be proud of your hard work, but don't push yourself too hard! Overworking isn't fun and just leads to the jam scorching. Take breaks and keep a good sleep schedule! It's okay to have a half-finished game, as long as you've made friends, learned new skills, and most importantly: had fun!

Game Jam Details

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General Details
Each winter game jam, the point of the game jam is the mandatory challenge. Work with what you're given and brainstorm how to branch off from there! In previous years, we've provided a map to add to your entry, sprites to use, and last year were story points to add to your entry! This year, we want to continue the pattern and you'll be tasked with choosing settings for your entry. Further below in the post we have a list of adjectives and locations that you combine for at least three different settings for your entry. You must use three different words from Column A and three different words from Column B in your entry. How you choose to interpret them are up to you and your team! We can't wait to see all of the variations come to life in the numerous game jam entries!

You aren't required to make a game about Pokémon if you don't want to. You don't have to use RPG Maker XP and Pokémon Essentials, although we suggest it. After all, this is a Pokémon fan game community. Don't let us stop you from creating a fun game, though.

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. You can only join one team though, and each team of 1-4 can only submit one game per entry period.

As with recent game jams, we are limiting who can play your game jam entry before the entry period is up! This year we require that you do not create a game jam thread for your entry until your game is ready to play and include a link to your game. When your thread is made public, the link will be hidden by staff until the deadline, at which time all games will be public and ready to play! This way, there isn't any advantage given to someone for posting a forum thread early.

As with previous years, we require that any graphics you create for your project be submitted as a Resource Pack in the Tutorials and Resources 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 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.

The Challenge
Below you will find a table with two columns: A lists adjectives and other descriptors, while B lists locations. You should pick one word from each column to create a setting for your game. Maybe your protagonist lives in a cozy cave, but travels to space and finds out it's very busy! You should work with your teammates to pick at least three completely different settings from the list. Alternatively, you can use the wheel to inspire you!



Make sure that you are choosing three different adjectives and three different locations to form your settings. Reusing a word isn't allowed! (So no cozy caves and cozy forests as they both are cozy. No ruined cities and early morning cities as they are both cities.) Do your best to include your challenge picks in interesting ways; using them in a low effort/uninvolved fashion will likely not get you the badge. This is up to the judge's discretion.

Summary

• This Game Jam has a twist. How will you incorporate at least three different settings into your entry?
• Your entry does not have to be a Pokémon game, or made in RPG Maker XP.
• 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 through our Tutorial and Resource section for free public use.
• 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. The only exceptions are devkits like Pokémon Essentials, PSDK, Ulix: Dexflow, pokecrystal, SkyTemple, etc.
• Entries must have download links available in their threads when submitted. (These will be hidden by staff before posting)
• List of credits must be included with entry post and bundled with the game in a text file. (credits.txt)
• Submitting an entry means Relic Castle 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.

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 Relic Castle. We hope this encourages you to make the best possible entry!

Badges

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As per usual, we'll be handing out two special badges again this game jam! These will be exclusive to this game jam.

Winter Jam 4 Badge: This badge is given to those who participated in Relic Castle Winter Jam 2023!!

Spotlight Winter Jam 4 Badge: This badge is given to those who participated in Relic Castle Winter Jam 2023 and had their game featured in the Spotlight!


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 more details on what you should do when packaging your game, check out the Finalizing Your Game tutorial on the Essentials wiki.

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 Relic Castle Winter Jam #4 forum that has the following details listed below, and your resource pack. (See 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 Progressing Projects (and possibly the Project Showcase) when the game jam concludes.

Game Title:
Game Screenshots:
Game Download:
Made Using:
Team:
Notes:
Resource Pack:
Credits:

Spoiler: Three Settings

One:
Two:
Three:

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 through the Tutorials and Resources section, in the Game Jam Packs category. You can do so here.

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 new 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 links will be hidden by staff until after the entry period ends (February 21st). If you need clarification, please message me right away!

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 mandatory this year?
A: We are continuing the tradition and twist we've had in the Winter Jams. While during the game jam during June-August only has an optional theme, this game jam will have a required challenge.

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 on the list of approved resources.

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 playtesters?
A: You're more than allowed to seek feedback from outside sources (even publicly!), but your team handles your playtesting.

Q: Are ROM hacks permitted?
A: Of course! They 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. 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.

For any further questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch!