Hey everyone it's 9 day jam time again! This one's going to be a bit different, we asked everyone over on the Discord of a range of dates for the 9 Day Jam, and this year's January 9 Day Jam happens to fall on the same weekend of the Global Game Jam! So this 9 day jam will follow the GGJ's theme which is announced the day the jam starts!

I'm also pleased to announce that the 9DJ is now going to have 10 events a year, and we already have the schedule pre-planned:

• #7 - Jan 31st - Feb 7th(This one)
• #8 - Feb 14th - 23rd
• #9 - Mar 13th - 22nd(Newly Added!)
• #10 - May 8th - 17th
• #11 - Jun 12th - 21st
• #12 - Jul 10th - 19th
• #13 - Aug 7th - 16th
• #14 - Sep 11th - 20th
• #15 - Nov 13th - 22nd
• #16 - Dec 11th - 20th

Themes will be voted on the week before each future jam, over on the Discord

What Are the rules?

1. All assets should be created inside the 9 Day window, Images, Music, Scripts, should all be written from scratch with some exceptions:
   1. Engines are allowed, you don't need to write the engine from scratch(Examples: Unity, Unreal, Godot, GameMaker)
   2. Freely available assets(Licensed by a Creative Commons license for example) are allowed, this includes images, textures, models, shaders, materials, scripts, music and sound effects.
   3. Assets that are not created within the 9 Day Window(such as the above freely available ones) must be noted in your game's description with links to the source.
2. The game mustn't be blatantly offensive. Use your best judgement.
3. The game must be related to the theme! Unique implementation of the theme is great, but playing the game should fairly clearly show the theme. 
4. The game must be made in time time frame! 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.
5. Have Fun!

Judging Criteria

After the jam is complete, anyone who submitted a game for the jam can vote on other games! Try to play and vote on as many games as you can!

Here's what you will be judged on

• Overall
• Closeness to Theme
• Fun
• Graphics
• Audio

Remember if you used any freely available assets, like graphics or sound, please be sure to opt out of the corresponding judging criteria

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
• 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.