The original jam page for American Gothic Jam was deleted without warning by its previous host, and is now rehosted for possible participants who were earnestly working. None of the new jam hosts are associated with the previous host.
The original jam was March 14th 2026, 11:00 PM (CST) to May 15th 2026, 11:00 PM (CST).
Extended deadline is February 13th 2027,11:00 PM (CST), birthday of Grant DeVolson Wood, artist of American Gothic. However, please still submit your game even if the deadline is passed.
All members involved in a team and the game jam have to be legal adults.
This jam is supported by and available for discussion on the VN Freaks forum. The general discussion thread is found here. Please consider signing up for teambuilding, and other forum events like creative writing exercises or public guides and resources.
Most of the original description of the jam is below.
The Newberry Library describes American Gothic as "a genre generally shifts away from the outward appearances of haunted landscapes and buildings, as well as outward signs of the supernatural, to the inward terrors of one’s own mind." It is, as Charles Crow outlines, “the imaginative expression of the fears and forbidden desires of Americans.”
While doing research for how to describe American Gothic, I found a list of films from Letterboxd used Amedeo Santolini, who captioned his list with "America's great songs of decadence and longing."
Alternatively, you are fine to use this as a way to explore a type of Gothic in America. Often cited is Midwestern Gothic or Southern Gothic Interpret this how you desire. Use the examples below to help you gain some inspiration.
thank you fablelustre for this writeup:
The American Gothic literary movement is derived from the Gothic tradition of English literature...
...the Gothic is a horror/drama aligned genre which points out the Disturbing and sublimated aspects of Society. It is most often preoccupied with the idea of a disturbed past coming back “haunt” and disturb the present (emotionally, mentally, physically).
This “haunting” often takes the form of a supernatural phenomenon (Ghosts!). A lot of the time, the root of the conflict or melodrama is a past sin (historically, just Christian sin like. this whole genre is pretty rooted in Anglo Christian normative values). Poe’s The Telltale Heart is a good example– dude is driven mad by the guilt of a murder he committed
A lot of the Gothic is also concerned with the concept of the “Uncanny”. Which is a particular kind of eerieness, usually produced by a sense of things being slightly off from the “norm” and therefore feeling forboding and unsafe. Unnatural doublings/twins/doppelgangers or things that appear “almost Human” are common ways to show Uncanny mirrors of our reality. Ghosts , Premonitions, and Dreams also.
As for the America side of the genre… America is built on inequities and horrors to maintain its status quo. The American Gothic explores how fucked up America is by inverting certain expectations of “modern normativity” and also showing how America’s past affects its unequal present. A good example is Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House. Which uses a Haunted House to parallel the main character’s fractured psyche as she is rejected from normative American domestic life and is unable to “live normally”. There is great tragedy in this. Often the Gothic can be more melancholic that outright scary.
America is pretty diverse so there are a lot of different ways to approach the genre. Could look at the culture of a particular region (Southern Gothic, Midwest Gothic) to help narrow things down. It’s very vibes based. What is the particular atmosphere and tone of a region… and then how can we peel back the facade of the Normal/Acceptable and perhaps see something Ugly and Wrong underneath.
thank you IntoTheSinx for more considerable examples.
NOVELS AND LITERATURE
MUSIC
FILM/TV
GAMES
AMERICANA-TINTED GAMES BY THE HOSTS
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