Your first thought upon seeing this page was probably somewhere along the lines of "Lol, that's amusing. I wonder how they got away with a joke jam on itch.io?"

Unless you're a teen, in which case you were probably thinking to yourself, "I don't know what a Hello World is, but it sounds like it could have something to do with sex..." Hint: it doesn't.

Also, it's not a joke. Well, it started as one, but it quickly evolved into a somewhat-serious (but mostly just put here to see if it's even possible to make a Hello, World interesting) jam. Feel free to join, the only cost is your soul! Kidding, if I started taking people's souls, Lucifer would get all bitchy. Seriously, for a lord of Hell he can be really irritating.

Discord server: https://discord.gg/j8nHkcQ

Anyway, there's not much to it - just create a Hello, World. Entries are scored based on creativity, originality, simplicity, paradoxical simplicity, fun level, and amusement.

• Fun level is self-explanatory
• Simplicity refers both to that of the program itself and to the ease with which it can be used to teach the language it's written in
• Paradoxical simplicity - well, here's a good example: BrainFuck is a completely impractical programming language made for amusement. If you write a brainfuck program that's easy to understand, you get points here. In essence, if it "makes it look easy" even when it really isn't, it gets points here.
• Creativity and originality sound similar, and in some contexts they are. This isn't one of them. If you have a creative project, one that looks really nice, and is fun both to play with (i.e. to run) and to tinker with (i.e. to modify), it's creative. That doesn't make it original though - it could be a clone of something someone else made. You get points in originality for making something new.
• Once again, fun level and amusement are two different things. Fun level refers to how fun it is to use the program overall. Amusement can be more temporary, and is more focused on the small things here. If it has an amusing logo, and it's amusing for around 15 seconds, it gets points in amusement. If, after that point, it's boring and you hit the X, it doesn't get points for fun.

Just to expound on what you should make for this:

A hello, world program can be more than just

#include<iostream>
using namespace std;
int main(){cout<<"Hello, World!"<<endl;return 0;}

So what does the program have to be?

The simple answer: nothing. There is no one "right" way to do it. For the purposes of this jam, a hello world program is any program that introduces programming concepts in a way a beginner could understand. It doesn't have to be a beginner to the language, as the one above - it could be a small program that introduces the fundamentals of emulation. It could be a small game which has well-commented code that teaches how to use SDL or SFML for 2D game development. It's up to you!

A couple of rules:

• Pre-existing source libraries are allowed. Note: if you start working on a library right this second for the sole purpose of using it in this jam, that's completely fine. However, if you do so, there can't be any project-specific functions in there.

That may be a bit confusing - let me explain a bit better. If you make a library right now, that's fine, if it's a library that could be used for any number of projects. If the library just provides basic math/graphics/whatever functionality that's fine. If, however, you add in a function such as, say, this:

function generateMap(width,height,parameters){
    //generate a map
    return map;
}

which - while it could technically be used in other projects, never would be - that's not allowed.

A better example: I currently plan to finish up a z80 emulator I started writing and creating a hello, world demonstrating writing a program in a hex editor. I can work on the emulator as much as I want - after all, I'm already using it in other projects! However, I am not allowed to actually write the program itself now. That won't be written until the jam starts.

That generateMap function I gave an example of earlier? If you have one that you use in other projects, you can use it. If you write a function that randomly generates a map in, say, .tmx format - that's allowed. It could be used to make a tool of it's own, and could conceivably be part of an actual library.

All questions of whether a library is valid will be judged by a panel of demons.

Kidding, it'll be a group of random people you've never met on the internet. Seriously though, just be smart about it and you'll be fine. Honestly, if you did write the entire program before the jam started, I'd have no way of knowing. It's about trust - I'm not going to do so, and I trust anyone who joins not to do so either.

• No politics of any kind - no American politics, no British politics, no Alagaësian politics, no Hellish politics, no Ardan politics, none - got it? Good.
• Keep to the theme. If you ignore this rule, that's fine, but you'll lose points.
• Don't stress out. This might sound stupid, but honestly, this is meant to be fun, not stressful. For God's sake this was made because of a joke!

The current theme is "Hell, World." Animated fire with "Hello World" where the first o is dangling? A program whose code comments make you want to send the author to hell due to how derisive they are? Go right ahead!