Ah, February. Home to some of the most romantic times of year, and full of romantic stuff to celebrate Valentine's Day. But too many of these stories focus on perfect, happy relationships and the same tired cliches: true love at first sight, marrying your high school sweetheart. It's far less common to get love and romance... without some heartbreak along the way.

The Broken Hearts Game Jam is an online game jam for people of all skill levels, where people have to create a game with the main theme of HEARTBREAK. How you go about this theme is entirely up to you. You can make any game in any genre, and do whatever you want with it, as long as you keep true to the theme of heartbreak and subverting the traditional romance you usually see.

What is a game jam? A game jam is an event where participants try to make a video game as quickly as possible. While most game jams only last a few days, we're giving you two weeks to account for any preparations you ight have planned for your own Valentine's, among other things.

Who can join? Anyone can join! If you've never made a game before, this can be a great way to start; and if you're an experienced developer, maybe this could be a good chance to try something new, whether that be a technical thing like a new engine, or a narrative thing like a plot you wouldn't usually do.

• Anyone can join, no matter how experienced or inexperienced you are.
• You don't have to work alone, either! You can work in teams if you'd like! One person is required to submit the game, but then they can add the additional teammates who have itch.io profiles from the More > Admins heading under the game project.
• While there's no actual limit on team size, keeping your team relatively small to avoid communication problems is recommend.

When is the jam? It runs from February 1st 2022 (at 12:00:01 AM) until the end of Valentine's Day! (February 14th 2022, at 11:59:59 PM). 

What can I make? In short terms: almost anything you want!

• We recommend following the theme, but ultimately, this game jam is about telling your not-average love story. If you want to do that through a theme other than heartbreak, go ahead!
• You can use any game engine to make the game, and build it for any platform you like! Reminder that for mobile, only APKs can be distributed on Itch.io.
• You can build for any platform you want. Generally, the more platforms your game is available on, the more people are able to play the game you made; web based games are the most commonly accessible options, with Windows shortly after.
• That said, your game needs to not require external software to run, like Roblox.
• It doesn't have to be a video game! Tabletop games, card games, and analog games are all equally valid!
• You may not make NFT games. Games that are monetized by or affiliated with NFTs or cryptocurrencies will be banned.

How do I join?

• Sign up for itch.io and hit “Join jam” on the jam page.
• Make a game.
• Submit your game to the jam when publishing your game!
• That’s it! 

Jam submission rules

• Your game should not contain hateful, derogatory, or bigoted content. (If your game does include it in a purely antagonistic role, please disclose this about the game on the Itch.io page.)
• Your game must be created within the game jam timeframe. You may use basic codes from other projects, but generally, you should make this game for the game jam, starting on February 1st.
• We highly advise submitting your game only to The Broken Hearts Game Jam, out of respect and fairness to other game jam hosts and participants.
• You don't have to finish your game within the jam time! Demos and unfinished projects are both welcome here; additionally, you can update your game at any time, even after the jam is finished.
• Games with adult content are permitted, but must be tagged +18 in the title, and any adult content shouldn't be in the game's thumbnail.
• Games in this game jam won't be judged, although players are encouraged to give feedback.

Asset and crediting rules

• Third party resources, third-party assets, and other third-party things are allowed if you own the rights to them; make sure it's either something in the public domain or you have permission of the content creator.
• To credit third-party resources, in the game's credits and/or the game information page on Itch.io, just state what resources were used and who made them, as well as a link to where you can find the resource.
• Pre-existing code and libraries you have the right to use can be used, but stuff specific to this game should be made within the timeframe.
• You don't have to mention The Broken Hearts Game Jam in your game, but if you want to, we'd appreciate the shout-out!

Legal and payment rules

• To sum it up simply: We don't own your game.
• You retain the rights to your game, and you can sell it if you wish. ("Pay what you want" is a helpful payment option to allow more accessibility with your game, but people can tip if they want)
• You don't have to pay to join or submit to The Broken Hearts Game Jam, although some development tools might cost money - although plenty of free options exist.
• While fangames aren't inherently against the rules of the game jam, we aren't legally responsible for anything that might happen.

Late submissions/Still have questions? Message me (CompleteIndie#6944) on Discord and I can answer your question or we can work it out!