Rules

This section outlines and explains the rules to adhere to as a participant in the jam. In this document, "you" and "your" refer to the participants of the jam, while "I," "we," "us," and "our" refer to the organiser of the jam. The jam starts on the 5th February and ends on the 26th February and the results will be avaliable on the 4th of March (subject to change)  

Theme

There are two main themes for this Jam, The main theme is accessibility, creating an experience that is able to be played with a focus on making it avaliable for all players of varying disabilities. The secondary theme is new beginnings as we have just entered a new year.

Jam Background

This jam was originally going to go live in January but i wanted to avoid the Global Game Jam so that accessibility can be the main focus with this Jam. It still fits in with the theme of new beginnings as Chinese New Year starts in February. I'm am all for games being accessible for everyone and what a better way to do it than with developers creating  accessible games in a short space of time to show the big guys that accessibility should be a focus and not an afterthought.

Judging

Games will be ranked by a panel of Six Disability Advocates/Content Creators,

SightlessKombat

littlemotac_

Arevya

Tarja Porkka-Kontturi

Radderss 

The Wobbly Gamer

When submitting your game, please state what accessibility issue you are focusing on so that the game can be categorised for judging as some of our judges have different levels of visual impairment so please state what level of accessibility your game has when it comes to vision so the judges are able to judge games fairly.

Here is the judging criteria in order

• Accessibility - Understanding the needs of a disability and verify that those needs are met in your project. 
• Theme - If the theme of new beginnings is presented
• Innovation/Creativity - how original and unique the project is 
• Gameplay - If the game is fun and well designed, not expecting AAA in the 3 weeks the jam is open

Useful Links

Here are a number of useful links for accessibility purposes

•  https://gameaccessibilityguidelines.com/
• https://accessibleweb.com/color-contrast-checker/

NSFW

This game jam strictly prohibits the inclusion of NSFW content in any submission. NSFW content includes, but is not limited to, pornographic material, racism, and sexism. If you are unsure whether your submission is NSFW, we encourage you to seek clarification by contacting us through our Discord server before submitting your game. Any submissions found to contain NSFW content will be removed and the creator may be reported to itch.io.

Game Engine and Format

You should submit your games in the PC/Web format, such as Windows. This is so it can be played by everyone. With other formats, everyone may not have the necessary tools to play your game. For instance, individuals without a VR headset would be unable to play a VR submission. 

The subsequent list presents a few examples of the game engines that are deemed acceptable

• Unity
• Unreal
• Godot
• Game Maker
• Scratch
• Pico
• Pygame
• Ren'Py

Horror Games

Horror games are permitted in the jam, provided that they do not breach the NSFW rules section. If you have created a horror game, you must include a clear horror warning before the game begins.

Premades

The jam permits the use of premade assets such as scripts, soundtracks, sound effects, and animations. However, participants are prohibited from excessively utilising them to the point of creating a completely premade game or a combination of premade games. Any submission that violates this rule will be disqualified from the jam. Additionally, all assets used in the game must be properly credited in the description of the submission page.

Teams

You can join the jam either as an individual or as a team of any size. However, please be mindful that the bigger the team, the harder it is to manage. You are also only allowed to join one team.

If you are joining as a team, kindly note that only one team representative is required to submit the game while crediting all team members as contributors on the submission page. To maintain fairness, contributors cannot rate other submissions directly on itch.io.

Submissions

You are limited to submitting only one game. If you submit more than one game, you will be disqualified from the jam.

Changing your submission

You may modify your submission during the jam period but you cannot do so after it ends. Changing your submission after the deadline will result in its removal from the results. This action will not be done by us but by itch.io's algorithm.