Chicaghoul is a Chicago community game jam with an emphasis on horror and Halloween related games! For this jam, participants are only asked to create a horror, horror themed, or Halloween related game as their entry. 

At the conclusion of the jam, Night City will host an in-person community reception and showcase (RSVP required) of all of the officially selected games submitted to the jam. 

• Entries should be within the horror genre or Halloween related.
• Gore and other more graphic content are acceptable, we just ask that any entries containing particularly sensitive elements be flagged accordingly. 
• Participants are encouraged (but not required) to create a movie style poster for their submission’s cover art! Posters should be included as a downloadable file on the submission’s Itch.io page, sized 11 x 17 inches (about 3300 px by 5100 px), at 300 DPI and as a PDF. We will print these for accepted games and showcase them at the reception.
• All entries should be tagged with #chicaghoul2023
• Only games officially selected will be showcased at the in-person reception.

We are collaborating with Indie City Games, which has generously allowed us to use their Discord for coordinating during the jam.

Schedule

• October 3 - 4:00 PM Central Time: Kickoff stream on Twitch QA; jam begins!
• October 17 - 11:59 PM Central Time: Submissions due
• October 19 - Officially Selected games announced
• Friday, October 20 | 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM: Community reception and game showcase (RSVP required!) with community voting held at Night City 

Quick Links

• Twitch (for kickoff event theme announcement and Q&A)
• Indie City Games Discord
• Game Jam entry form
  
• RSVP for community reception / game showcase 

PRIZES

Prizes are generously supplied for this jam by DreadXP! 

If a winning team is comprised of multiple members, each member of the team will receive the prizes outlined below.

• Official Selection (all Officially Selected game teams): Steam key for any single game in DreadXP's catalog.
• Audience Award (chosen by audience vote at in-person showcase reception): Steam keys for any five games in DreadXP’s catalog.

Lastly, everyone who attends the reception, plays the games, and votes will be entered into a raffle to win games of their choice from DreadXP’s entire catalog of games on Steam! Both jam participants and non-participants are able to entire the community raffle.

Eligible games for prizes:

• https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/DreadXP
• https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/28014/Black_Eyed_Priest_Bundle/

Official Selection

All entries will be blind reviewed by an impartial selection committee. Entries will be evaluated based on presentation values, engagement, playability, and cohesion with the jam theme. 

We want to minimize gatekeeping and encourage community participation across all skill levels.  All games that comply with the rules below will be included in the jam page on Itch.io. However, due to limited space at the in-person reception and limited availability of prizes, a maximum of 10 games will be officially selected.

Rules for Official Selection

To be officially selected, submissions must fulfill the following criteria:

• Game must be submitted to the game jam on Itch.io.
• Jam entries should be original and created during the jam period.
• One contact person on the team must submit an entry form.
• Games must be within the horror genre, horror themed, or Halloween related.
• Teams are limited to four members or fewer. Participants may be members of multiple teams but may only be the contact person for a single game. Team members (usernames or real names) must be credited on the game’s Itch page.
• To facilitate the blind review process lease leave team credits and other identifying information out of the game itself until after the official selections are announced on 10/19. You are welcome and encouraged to add credits back after 10/19.
• At least one team member must be present and able to display the created game for the duration of the showcase reception (we will have at least 30" x 30" of table space for you and outlets, you're on the hook for the rest!).
• Any externally created assets must be credited with links on the game’s Itch page.
• The game must be reasonably functional as determined by Night Cit and Indie City Games.
• If a game is submitted as playable in-browser, it should also include a downloadable version.
• Game size should not exceed 2 GB.
• The game must be playable without a third-party installer.
• Tag your game with chicaghoul2023

Selection Committee

• Daria Boudreau, Activision
• Jerrell Nolan, ArenaNet
• Zoe Claire, DreadXP

Legal / IP Rules

• Developers hold all rights to the games they make.
• Developers grant Night City and Indie City Games the permission to use their game's name, screenshots, and video footage in promotional materials for Night City, Indie City Games, and future events.
• Night City and Indie City Games are not responsible for any games submitted. 
• Games featuring text in languages besides English must provide a translation of all submitted materials not in English.
• Night City and Indie City Games reserve the right to not display and / or remove any uploaded games if the game content is broken, offensive or unsuitable as determined by Night City and Indie City Games’ sole discretion. This includes but is not limited to: games with harmful or prejudicial themes related to gender, sexual orientation, age, ability, appearance, ethnicity, national origin, citizenship, socioeconomic status, or religion.

About Night City

Night City is a Chicago studio focused on curating community-oriented video game development, festivals, exhibitions, and educational resources.

Night City’s mission is to strengthen community by:

• Reconceptualizing video games as participatory community art.
• Affording diverse, local creators an equitable space to share their work with in-person audiences beyond traditional commercial channels.

More info at nightcity.games

About Indie City Games

For info on Indie City Games, check out our Discord!