Cover Art By: Jaime Ugarte

JAM FOCUS (Must Use): Finish Line

Pick up a previous project or current project and finish it! Implement a new feature from start to finish. Complete a project that you started a while ago. Polish a project with animations, VFX, SFX, and juice it up to take it to the next level! 

Creative Theme (Should Use): Tik Tik Tik

Your actions take time and energy. At the end of this experience, your character's life is over.

Theme Ingredients (Optional):

(Ingredients are additional ideas related to the theme to help focus your creativity. )

• Spooky Seasoning - “add something horror-themed to your game! Spooky, Halloween, cute scares, classical monsters and cosmic horror are on the table!"
• Cozy Pumpkin Spice - add some coziness into your game. Feels like curling up with a book or a sweater. Feels homey. Feels like drinking a warm cider on a cool afternoon. Feels like sitting by the fire.

Food Dish: Sweet Potato Sampler

A sampler of the some of the Fall's best sweet potato dishes - Candied Yams, Sweet Potato Pie, Stuffed Sweet Potato, Sweet Potato Biscuits (as a little something special).

Rules and More Details

This jam is open to both digital and analog interactive experiences – choose the medium that excites you!

Important!

• Join our Discord to discuss the theme, share resources, and find team members! Collaboration is a key part of our culture.  Most community conversation for this jam will happen via the MGK Discord
• We encourage you to jam with new people or on a team, but it is not required. We will be providing resources for team forming at the jam kickoff and throughout the jam timeline for those who want to jam based on the theme.
• During the Showcase/Feedback Session, constructive feedback and positive reinforcement will be the focus. Building for the future and collaboration are about lifting everyone up together.
• All participants must follow MGK’s Code of Conduct (see below)

This jam is for creators of all relevant skills and experience levels, regardless of whether you have made interactive experiences before or not. Writing, art, design, music/sound design, programming, playtest expertise, etc. There are some skill experts in the discord group that can help out when you need (we're continually bringing in new skill experts to cover more focus areas.)

We highly recommend submitting your in-progress game even if you don't finish over the course of the jam, as you can always submit a more complete version later. And we love to learn more about what everyone worked on! We hope to share everyone's progress, regardless of full game completion, during our closing showcase stream.

"I want to join the fun but don't want to make anything." Bet. We'll be streaming some of our co-work sessions and our showcase. During those events, non-participants can join in discussions, brainstorming, and feedback sessions.

If you can't make this game jam, no worries. This is a jam "series". We will be doing more jams this year. So sign up for the MGK Newsletter to be notified when we announce the next jam in the series!

Discord Link: https://discord.gg/cbVpD5mkrd

MGK Newsletter Signup Form: http://eepurl.com/httsfT

Please sign up for our mailing list to be notified about future major Jam announcements.

(Your email will ONLY be used for important announcements related to the game jam series or the Melanated Game Kitchen.)

Code of Conduct

We will not tolerate sexism, racism, or discrimination of any kind. This means, in our community and in the games you create.

Jam Schedule

We will be hosting  online activities to support jammers in meeting and preparation. This list will update over time. 

• Sunday, October 15: Theme Discussion 
• Saturday, October 21: Pitch Day - Pitch Your Jam Ideas to the group and potentially form teams. 
• Friday, November 3: Tech Prep
• Sunday, November 5: Jam Kickoff Day!  
  • via YouTube @ 3pm pst - Jam Kickoff, Theme Reveal & Team Forming 
• Sunday, November 5: Co-Work Session with Skill Mentors @ 4pm pst
• Friday, November 10: Mentor Co-Work Session @ 6pm pst
• Sunday, November 12: Mentor Co-Work Session @ 4pm pst
• Friday, November 17: Mentor Co-Work Session @ 6pm pst
• Sunday, November 19 Submissions Due @ 3pm pst
• Sunday, November 19: Showcase & Feedback Session @ 5pm pst - Showcase games and live interview sessions with jam teams

Works

Readings (Tik Tik Tik)

– Sweet Potato History in North America (and why it’s a top tier veggie): https://www.vegparadise.com/highestperch11.html 

Videos (Tik Tik Tik)

– Concept of Time Across Different Cultures - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdXGVOsqLjs 

– Which way do you perceive time test - https://youtube.com/shorts/6Z2rsIwzjj4?si=BZ-34un9o0GnScoE 

– African Conception of TIme - https://africanhistoryproject.org/public-lectures/the-african-conception-of-time/ 

– Death Doula’s - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbVllctii40 

Works (Tik Tik Tik)

– Minit (game) (Adventure game where you die after 60 seconds) - https://store.steampowered.com/app/609490/Minit/ 

– Outer Wilds (game) (Space adventure game where the universe explodes after a few hours) - https://store.steampowered.com/app/753640/Outer_Wilds/ 

–Mortician’s Tale (game) (a death positive adventure game where you manage a morgue) - https://mashable.com/article/morticians-tale-death-positive-indie-game 

- One Way Heroics Plus - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBIjtOQXzXM 

- GMTK - Clockwork Games and Time Loops - https://youtu.be/CI-4cumMC-Y 

- Darryl Talks - The Best Worst Mechanic in Gaming - https://youtu.be/lxwgQbtuD6U 

- Time Loop Nihilism  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZrEayPIrVE&pp=ygUcZGVhdGhsb29wIHRpbWUgbG9vcCBuaWhhbGlzbQ%3D%3D 

Recipes: 

• https://sweetpotatosoul.com/perfect-roasted-sweet-potatoes/ 
• https://sweetpotatosoul.com/how-to-make-vegan-sweet-potato-pie/ 
• https://www.myforkinglife.com/southern-candied-sweet-potatoes/ 
• https://www.homecookingadventure.com/stuffed-sweet-potatoes/

General Works for the Culture Bytes Jam Series

• https://thewagaduchronicles.com/ - An upcoming Afrofantasy Online RPG & DnD Setting by Twin Drums
• https://motherlandsrpg.com/ - POC focused sci-fi RPG on twitch 
• https://www.organizingforpower.org/ - In-Depth site with resources, tools, and readings for anyone that is interested in creation positive social change.  
• https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race/topics - The National Museum of African American History and Culture’s site detailing in-depth learning resources related to the history of race in America and how that affects our society now. 
• www.knarrative.com - Web platform for the largest African Studies courses in the world.  A great resource for learning history through an Pan-African lens.

Recommended Tools/Engines/Platforms

Here are some common tools/engines:

• Digital
  • Unity
  • Unreal Engine 4
  • Game Maker
  • Godot Engine
  • RPG Maker
  • Twine
  • Storyspace
  • Bitsy
  • Pico-8
• Analog
  • Tabletop RPG
  • Board Game

Resources

Art

• OpenGameArt (2D + 3D)
• Kenney (2D + 3D)
• Game-Icons (2D)
• Textures.com (Textures)
• Poly.pizza (3D)
• TheBaseMesh (3D)

Fonts

• Fontsource (Fonts)
• Font Squirrel (Fonts)
• Google Fonts (Fonts)

Audio

• Incompetech - Royalty Free Music (Music)
• Free Music Archive (Music)
• lmms
• Freesound (SFX)
• OpenGameArt (Music + SFX)
• Kenney (Music + SFX)
• Soniss (SFX)

Tools

• BitFontMaker2 (Fonts)
• Photopea (Art)
• Paint.NET(2D Art program)
• Asesprite (Sprite Creator)
• Krita (2D Art Program)
• Blender (3D Art Program)
• Visual Studio (Programming IDE)
• sfxr (SFX Generator)
• Chiptone (SFX)
• Bosca Ceoil (Music Composition)
• BeepBox (Music)
• Lospec (Palettes)
• Easy Releasy (itch.io page designer)
• Tiny Tools (More!)

Culture Bytes

Culture Bytes is a series of game jams aimed at creating unique interactive experiences, under the context of ideas, perspectives, issues, and themes relevant to members of various Diasporas, over a 1-2 week period. Exploring the African Diaspora is the current focus of the jam series.

The purpose of this jam series is:

1. To create experiences centered on themes relevant to members of Diasporas (i.e. African Diaspora, Indian Diaspora, Chinese Diaspora, etc.);For the African Diaspora that means: African American, African, Afro-Latin, Afro-Cuban, Caribbean, Jamaican, and many other groups.
2. To give creators more time to make something interesting without being as stressed/pressed for time.
3. To collaborate and foster creative friendships in our journeys for self expression and our collective futures.

Volunteer to help with future game jams

We are aiming to make this a great experience for everyone involved and to continue to improve this jam. We are looking for more team members! If you are interested in helping with the jam series or the jam, fill out this survey and we'll be in touch!

Volunteer Signup Form: https://forms.gle/evmQ3DjUZsWckiwT7

F.A.Q.

• Do I need to be a member of the African Diaspora to participate?
  • Nah. Anyone and everyone can (and should) participate! The biggest thing we ask is that you utilize the resources that are given for the jam and make an effort to see from the perspective of people who are of the African Diaspora.
• Who is included in the African Diaspora?
  • Anyone that has ancestral heritage connected to Africa. That meaning, Brazilian, Jamaican, Haitian, Spanish, African-American, and many other groups.
• What is Pan-Africanism?
  • "Pan Africanism is a political philosophy that represents a belief in the laws and representation that benefit Africans across the Diaspora. Ideological Ideas: Collectivism, Independent Political Representation, Ubuntu The Flag: The colors represent the blood of our Ancestors, the melanin of the original people, and the wealth and prosperity of our African homeland." - panafricanalliance.com
• What is the Melanated Game Kitchen?
  • The Melanated Game Kitchen is a growing community of game devs from across the African Diaspora, working together to create interactive works "for da culture." Make friends, share ideas, create. Thanks for joining our kitchen!