HUH? Where's Harold?

After his heroic return , Harold is now... somewhere! But it's up to you to find out where! We don't even know!

Could Harold have gone missing? Is he hiding on purpose? Or maybe he's just in a big crowd of suspiciously Harold-looking guys! Does Harold even know where he is?

Sawyer Friend, KV Kingdom, Stay Awake Games, and the RPG Maker Beta Testers Server invite you to join Harold Jam 2025: Where's Harold!

Rules:

1. Following the jam theme is optional! This year's (remember - it's optional) theme is "Where's Harold", and you can interpret that as you'd like! Is Harold missing? Or has he found himself in a strange new place? Maybe he's just playing hide and seek, it's up to you!
2. Required elements are non-optional. Must include the character, a line of dialogue and location announced at beginning of jam (see required elements below).
3. No pre-existing games! Please do all your devving during the jam time. Pre-existing art work, animations, plugins, music, and other assets are permitted, but assets created with Generative A.I. are prohibited.
4. Entries must be stand-alone entries! You're allowed to make sequels and follow ups, but each entry must be playable without any pre-requisites (this is to ensure that games in the Rating Queue can all be played without issue)
5. Judging will be within 6 categories (see Judgment Categories section below).
6. Ratings can be done by anyone, participant or not. Invite your friends to play yours and others'!
7. Time limit of 60 minutes (suggested over 5 minutes for best results). Judges can play as long as they want, but should only judge the first 60 minutes of gameplay.
8. Collaboration is permitted (and any number of submissions is allowed).
9. Participants are encouraged to play and rate at least 3 other entries.
10. All game engines are allowed, but remember to follow the EULA for any assets you use. The jam community tab includes Harold and other Harold-related resources you can use for your project.
11. Custom assets are allowed, including plug-ins and art made by others as long as you credit and have the rights to use them.
12. It is recommended that games are playable on PC. Browser versions are also recommended as an option.
13. Sawyer, KV, and CW reserve the right to disqualify entries at their discretion.

Required Elements:

Character: An Archeologist 

Dialogue: “Even after everything you did to try and prevent it.” 

Location: Wildlife Preserve

Judgment Categories:

There will be multiple separate and independent award categories. Participants can gear their game toward any award or combination of awards as they see fit. There is one overall rating, which will determine the overall winner of the jam.

 - Harold Award for Excellence: Overall Rating

 - Therese Award for Technique: Gameplay

- Marsha Award for Melodies: Music

- Oldhar Award for Literature: Story

- Hrld Award for Visual Arts: Graphics

- Lucius Award for Laughs: Comedy

This year, for security, we will be using an external source for voting! We recommend that as you play the jam games, you write down your own scores for each entry as you go so you can remember what score you'd like to give them when the voting period begins! Once the voting period begins, a link to the voting form will be posted in the comments of the entry's page, as well as on its own separate forum page.

Rating Queue:

We will once again be using the "Rating Queue" system first seen in 2020's GMTK! All raters will be given a random selection of three games to rate before they can rate anything else. After rating the three randomly assigned games, raters can then rate whichever games they choose.

In case of many submissions (>25) the deadline for rating may be extended accordingly.

Prizes:

Winners of each category will be determined by community voting, based on the criteria above. The "Found Harold" role in the RPG Beta Testers server will go to the winner of the Harold award for excellence category, and said winner will also receive $30.

The original Harold graphics belong to KADOKAWA. Once again, huge thanks to Nowis for donating the fantastic banner and character art. Give Nowis a follow on Deviant Art and Twitter as well!