Things are going to be different this time around for the 9 Day Jam! Unlike previous 9 Day Jam's this one's theme is going to be voted on! Edit: Theme Suggestions have ended!

The 9 Day Jam is a Game Dev Competition where you design and build a game based on a theme, then play and judge other peoples games, all in the name of improving your skills!

Theme - The Theme is Farming!

What Are the rules?

The rules are pretty relaxed, basically:

1. Make all parts of your game from scatch(Scripts, Art, Music, Sound Effects etc.) with a couple exceptions:
   • You can use whatever engine you'd like, for example: Unity, Unreal, Godot, GameMaker
   • Game agnostic tools are allowed, for example things like: Bolt, Odin, TextMesh Pro, or custom built tools are allowed. (See FAQ for more details)
   • If you want to use an asset not made in the 9 days, like a model, texture, sound, or music track, you must add a note to your submission disclosing what assets were not made during the 9 days. Not doing so could lead to disqualification.
2. The game must be submitted before the deadline, keep an eye on the clock!
3. The game mustn't be blatantly offensive. Use your best judgement(I know this is subjective but I get final approval so if you are concerned your idea may be disqualified because it's offensive you can DM me on discord)
4. Have Fun!

Important!

• The end time for the jam is a hard cutoff time, if there are legitimate issues uploading or getting the game posted in time, message me on Twitter or Discord and I can work out late submissions on a case by case basis.

How are games Rated?

Games are rated by the other people who submit games, to rate games you must submit a game, and games are rated on the following criteria:

• Overall
• Fun
• Closeness to Theme
• Sounds/Music
• Graphics

Quick Tips

• Remember to scope, you have 9 days but you'd be surprised how quickly that goes by.
• Take time away from the computer, one of the benefits of the 9 Day Jams are that there is time to breathe. Break when you feel you need it to prevent overworking!
• The idea of jams is to get outside your comfort zone and try new things! Don't be afraid to try some new tricks or learn some new skills!

FAQ

• Can I work with a team?
  • Yeah go for it! That's what the Discord is for!
• I'm in a team, can my team rate other games as well?
  • Yes. Just make sure they're listed as Contributors on your game, as a team only one of you has to submit the game!
• When you say "Game agnostic tools are allowed" Doesn't that go against the first rule "Make all parts of your game from scatch"?
  • This is the question I get more than any other one, so that's a good question!
  • Basically this rule is here for healthy competition. Tools are great and can really speed up development, but in the context of game jams, re-using existing code can go against the core idea.
  • Lets say the theme was "Platformer" and you had been working on a platformer for 6 months before the jam. It wouldn't be fair to the other jammers if you were to use the sprites, music, sounds, and scripts that you had been refining over the last 6 months. For the 9 Day Jam, this would be considered pre-existing code and against the rules.
  • Another example, let's say the theme was "Shooter" and you went to the asset store and purchased some "FPS" package that included character controller scripts, gun models and sounds, and animations. This wouldn't be allowed since even though this is a tool it's not "game agnostic". For the 9 Day Jam, this tool would not be allowed.
  • As a different example, lets say you do your save games in JSON and have tool that you wrote that makes it trivial to save and load data from a save game. This would be allowed because the tool is "game agnostic" it's not just for "RPG" or "Shooter" type games, but for any game.
  • As a rule of thumb ask yourself the following: "If the theme changed, would I still use this code regardless?" If yes, then you're probably looking at a tool.
  • Finally, if you're not sure after reading these examples, messaage me on discord, and we can figure it out.
• Why is the start and end times different?
  • Though the jam is supposed to be EXACTLY 9 days, itch.io's jam system makes the time a hard stop, so we added a "submission window" to account for building the final jam versions, and getting them uploaded. We recognize that exporting/building games into releases can take time, and if you're building for more than 1 or 2 platforms, it can take even longer.