Last year, we found Harold after he had gone missing! Now that the world is at peace, it's time for Harold and the gang to work together to preserve the memories they've made over the years. In the event that tragedy strikes, and those memories are in danger, it is up to the community to take initiative and salvage what they can before it is lost!

Sawyer Friend, KV Kingdom, Stay Awake Games, and the RPG Maker Beta Testers Server invite you to join Harold Jam 2026: Preserving Memories!

Rules:

1. Following the jam theme is optional! This year's (remember - it's optional) theme is "Preserving Memories", and you can interpret that as you'd like! What memories need to be preserved? What does it mean to preserve them?
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: To Be Announced

Dialogue:  To Be Announced

Location: To Be Announced

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.

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

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 Bluesky, and Twitter as well!