LCD Jam!

Make an old LCD-handheld-style game - with a twist!

Make an LCD-style game that follows the theme announced at the start of the jam. 

YOUR JAM THEME IS: Cutting Edge

Winners

Best of Jam: Candlelight
Best Gameplay: Spacetime Sunder
Best Use of Theme: Don't Stab Your Hand
Community Choice: Candlelight

About LCD Games: you can read up on the topic here:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handheld_electronic_game and check out the emulated handhelds at https://archive.org/details/handheldhistory

Jam dates:  Jam theme will be announced at midnight, September 13. The planning period begins on September 13th at midnight and ends 11:59 PM on September 27th. The development period begins September 28th at midnight and ends at 11:59 PM  on October 13th. All times CST (GMT - 6)

Jam format: This jam is in the style of the old Something Awful Game Developers Challenges of yore and has a planning period and development period. The theme will be announced at the start of the planning period. You may form teams, create plans, set up repos, etc, at this time but may not begin development (ie, creating code, assets, etc) until the beginning of the development period. You may submit your game at any point during the development period, but no submissions will be accepted after the deadline.

Joining a team Participants are strongly encouraged to team up with other entrants! Find people who complement your strengths! Looking for teammates? Come say hi in the Dogpit Discord! We also encourage you to say hi in the discord regardless and meet other chill gamedevs, artists, game audio people, voice actors, and other neat folks!

Contact @TeamDogpit or info@teamdogpit.com. Tweet your game WIPs with the hastag #dogpitjam so we can find and retweet them!

Categories and Judging

• Best of Jam
• Best use of Theme
• Best Gameplay
• Community Choice

Judges are Xibanya, SnowSchu, and Mihai Zetta

Prizes TBA!

Jam Stream: All entries will be played live on stream with commentary by judges. Livestream dates will be announced after the close of submissions.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES AND RESTRICTIONS

• Foreground elements cannot rotate, translate, scale, touch, or overlap with any other foreground elements for the entire duration of the game. The silhouette of foreground elements may not change. Any illusion of such must be achieved by turning foreground elements on or off. 
• Your game may have only one background. This background can be in color and can scroll, but it cannot be rotated or scaled. 
• Foreground elements MAY have color and may have animation within them as long as this animation does not break the silhouette. Example: a block in the foreground may tween between blue and green, or a character may have animated blinks. However, use of color MAY NOT be used to make it appear that the silhouette of an object has changed or to simulate another overlapping object.
• Text may not overlap with foreground elements EXCEPT in the case of subtitles for any speech in audio
• Additional screens are allowed so long as they are NOT a part of gameplay (pause menu, options menu, credits, etc)
• Screenshake and particle effects are allowed
• As long as it follows the above stated rules, any style of art is allowed. 
• Any style of audio is allowed
• The game may be in 3d if it follows all above rules, has a fixed camera, and  a two dimensional presentation of gameplay 
• You may depict a physical interface on screen with functional buttons and switches, but all gameplay must be contained within the one allowed background. (ie, you can have part of the game involve pressing a button on an on-screen interface, but changing the batteries of the fictional handheld device on which the LCD-style game runs may not be a gameplay element) All onscreen controls must have gamepad or mouse/keyboard mappings.

General Jam Rules

• Make a game that follows the theme and submit it by the deadline!
• Don't dev in the planning period. This is enforced solely by the honor system, so please respect your fellow jammers!
•  Entries that include hate speech or harassment will be removed from the jam
• The game you submit to the jam must be free for a minimum of four weeks after submissions are closed.
• submissions must be playable on Windows 10 or in browser (you can submit Mac, Linux builds but your game will not qualify for judging unless there is a Windows build.) It is highly suggested that your game NOT launch in fullscreen by default.

FAQ

Q: I've never made a game before, can I enter?  A: Yes

Q: I'm not very good at making games, should I enter? A: Yes

Q: Can I use Gamemaker, Unity, Unreal, my own boilerplate, and/or my own engine?  A: Yes

Q: Can I reuse my own code from prior projects? A: Yes, though if you do so it would be sporting to open source that code and link it in the community Discord server so that anyone could use it if they wanted to.

Q: Can I take a game I have already made and modify it to fit the theme?  A: No

Q: What time zone determines the start and end dates?  A: Central Standard Time (CST, GMT - 6) 

Q: Can I join the jam after it has already started?  A: Yes, you can join at any time. You just have to submit a game before the deadline. 

Q: Can I work with a team?  A: Yes

Q: Can I be a member of more than one team?  A: Yes

Q: Is there a limit to the number of people that can be on the same team?  A: No

Q: Can I submit more than one game? A: Yes

Q: Can I use open source assets, unity store assets, or other assets that are available to the general public?  A: Yes

Q: What happens if I don't submit my game in time?  A: Your game won't be judged and won't be played on the livestream. I still encourage you to keep working on the game on your own time though.

Q: Can I update my game after the end of the jam?  A: Yes but judging will be based on the copy that was submitted by the deadline.