Welcome to Charity Jam II!  This time it is a four-week long game jam as part of Games for Love, a 501(c)(3) dedicated to easing suffering, saving lives, and creating sustainable futures for children.

Kick-off!

Join us on the Games for Love Discord Server at 10 AM PT on Friday for the game jam kick off and to get any questions you have answered!  We'll be having the kick-off in #game-jam-chat under the "PROJECT CHARITY JAM II: BRAWLER+" category.

Theme

The theme for this Charity Jam is "BRAWLER+!"  First off, let's discuss some terms that we'll use to describe the goals of this game jam:

• A core genre is a genre that critically impacts the mechanics of a game, such that adding multiple core genres significantly hinders the cohesion of the mechanics.  Having three or more core genres, such as a tower defense stealth survival horror game, can be really hard to make work, but having two core genres, such as a tower defense stealth game or a stealth survival horror game, tends to be manageable and introduce interesting dynamics between the two genres' mechanics.
   
• A genre addon is a genre whose elements can be applied to core genres to enhance them and they work well alongside other genre addons.  For example, an open world Metroidvania brawler (core genre) with puzzle platforming, roguelike, and survival crafting elements could technically work.  Genre addons also tend to be genres that in early games were core genres, but became prolific enough that they no longer stand out amongst the crowd on their own (e.g. platformer).

Going back to this game jam, our focus is going to be on taking the "Brawler" core genre and adding another core genre and genre addons to create some unique and fun mechanics.  Think Battletoads, Double Dragon, or TMNT: The Arcade Game meets Cooking Mama, Starcraft, or Pokemon with a touch of Final Fantasy, Skyrim, or Axiom Verge.  Here's what we're looking for:

Brawler + (1 Core Genre) + (At Least One Genre Addon)

For example:

Brawler + (Card-Based) + (RPG + Roguelike)
Brawler + (Turn-Based Strategy) + (Arcade + Metroidvania + Survival Crafting)

The emphasis is on mechanics, so while you can choose to add art, story, music, etc., this game jam's submissions will be judged on their mechanics only (see "Rating" below)!  Because of this, there are no restrictions on using existing assets for prototyping your mechanics, such as from The Spriters Resource or Itch.io game assets, and you can always create your own as well.

Here are examples of core genres and genre addons:

If you have questions about any other genres that aren't on here, ask on the "Community" tab and we can clarify if they are core genres or genre addons.

Need some inspiration?  Check out some "Brawler+" explorations the BAKLAVA team did as part of pre-production research!

Eligibility

Because this game jam is aiming for enhancing the brawler core genre with additional genres' elements, all submissions must adhere to the following constraints:

• The game's mechanics must be designed around the brawler core genre
• The game's mechanics must be designed around one additional core genre and only one
• The game's mechanics must be designed around at least one genre addon

Rules

• You can work alone or in a team of any size
• The game you submit has to be created during the jam
• The game must be family-friendly (no NSFW, offensive, gory/overly violent, etc. content)

Rating

Members of the Games for Love community and the public will be able to judge these games over a two-week period.  All games will be rated in the following categories:

• The Lens of the Toy (Fun and Replayability):  See below
• Innovation / Uniqueness:  Does this bring together mechanics from the combined genres in a new and interesting way?
• Controls:  Was it easy to control moving around, interacting with the environment, and battling against enemies?
• Combat:  Was the brawling component enjoyable and satisfying?
• Attack Combos:  Were there cool, unique, or satisfying chained attack sequences?
• Favorite Core Genre Combination:  How does this genre combination compare against the rest?
• Best Use of Genre Addons:  How well were genre addons integrated into the core genres?

Our primary rating, the "Lens of the Toy," is from The Art of Game Design by Jesse Schell.  Here's what he has to say about it:

To use this lens, stop thinking about whether your game is fun to play, and start thinking about whether it is fun to play with.  Ask yourself these questions:

If my game had no goal, would it be fun at all?  If not, how can I change that?

When people see my game, do they want to start interacting with it, even before they know what to do?  If not, how can I change that?

…Use it to invent and create new toys before you even have any idea what games will be played with them...  it can be a great "divining rod" to help you find wonderful games you might not have discovered otherwise.

Since this game jam is all about mechanics and not about what games will ultimately be played with them, your goal is to create the best "toy" you can!