I've received a number of questions about ideas/code/assets created before the start of the jam. There have also been a few suspiciously early submissions, or submissions of games that were made long before the jam started. So I would like to clarify what is in the spirit of the event and what is not.
The intent of a game jam is for people to challenge themselves to make a game within a given time constraint. Of course, people are going to come to the event with ideas, reusable bits of code, and even preexisting assets from previous projects or third party resources. That's great! But your submission should be a project that was mostly made during the jam.
There's obviously a gray area between games that are 100% created during the jam and games that were 100% created outside of the jam. I think the vast majority of you have good intentions and I would like to stay flexible to make this an inclusive event. But some folks are really pushing it.
So I hope this helps you figure out where the line is. If you are making a new version of a game you made before because you have new ideas you want to try, that's fine! Try to push yourself to make a project that's unique to this jam so that you're closer to the "made during jam" side. But if you are submitting a game you finished six months ago because it happens to fit the theme, that's clearly not in the spirit of the jam, and it's a bummer to the other participants. Cut it out!