Intro: "Spook's Grand Debut"

It’s that time of year again. The time where mysterious forces manifest behind dark curtains… conjuring whimsical follies of the night that whip entire civilizations into a frenzy of enspookment, terror, and dread! Moreover, it’s also that time of year where aspiring devs of all walks come together to forge evil machinations of the mind into curated gaming experiences that test the limits of creativity.

We are delighted to welcome you to HoloJam’s grand slam debut in the Age of Spook!

Rules

1. Please follow the Hololive Derivative Works Guidelines! https://hololivepro.com/en/terms/

2. No explicit NSFW content or horny submissions! Mildly suggestive content that meets Hololive standards ("seiso") is okay -- but keep it in moderation. Please do put a disclaimer if you stray in this direction!

3. No AI-generated assets (e.g. artwork, music).

4. Your game should only be worked on during the jam’s live time! Cover Corp / Hololive official branding, icons, and logos; and open-source game assets can be used per their Guidelines and applicable licenses, with credit.

Discord

Our official community Discord is here: https://discord.gg/y6GPNMzWCj

This is where we do live communication and event tracking for the Jam. If you have more questions after reading everything here, don’t hesitate to drop by and ask!

What’s the theme?

The theme statement will be announced at the Jam Kickoff event, in the official Discord server! You can expect it to be related to Hololive, of course… and the context clues in the intro. >:)

Feedback Criteria

While HoloJam does provide ranking criteria to encourage fellow devs to play and give constructive feedback to other games, we don't want to put emphasis on over-competicizing the jam. The rating is meant for you (or your team) to take away what you could've done better, or what worked really well.

With that in mind: here are the official HoloJam criteria and their feedback helpers:

• Theme
  • How effectively does the game capture the theme of this jam? What did it do well?
• Innovation
  • Does the game break the fold and challenge your gamer conceptions by having innovative approaches, core concepts, or design?
• Gameplay
  • Is the game *fun* / have an engaging story / fulfilling for its target genre? Does it capture your attention and give you something to chew on? Would anything make you play it again?
• Ambience
  • How well does the game convey the mood it wants to give off? Does audio, sound, clever dialogue, view framing, or other genre-specific composition add flair to the world, level, or setting in which you find yourself?
• References
  • (This is jam-specific:) If there’s anything devs love to insert into their games, it’s references! How good is the game at hiding easter eggs and/or alluding to or making references to Hololive lore, trivia, or culture — if it has any?

FAQ

Is the theme a requirement?

Yes! We provide the theme to serve as a bunker buster for those afflicted with Creator’s Block, a terrible debuff. Feel free to deviate from the path, of course — but don’t forget, Yagoo is watching!

But what if I don't know how to make games?

That’s okay! Jams are all about experimenting and learning something new, and we want to encourage that here. Whether you’re an industry veteran or an artist looking to dabble, here’s how you can:

• If you have absolutely no programming knowledge (or some but don’t know where to start), you should start with the basic tutorials for easier-to-pickup game engines such as Godot or Unity to get a sense for how they work and how you can compose games in them!
• If writing code scares you but you want to make things work anyway, visual scripting is a great designer-friendly way to get into it:
  • Check out the Orchestrator asset for Godot here!
  • Check out Construct 3 and/or GameMaker for additional engine examples!
  • Despite being primarily C#, Unity also provides visual scripting!
  • Despite being a scary-big C++ engine, Unreal Engine also provides visual scripting via Blueprints.
• If you’re familiar with code but have never built a game, here are some common mappings that may help you pick one:
  • Coming from JavaScript/TypeScript? Phaser or Sprig may be worth a look!
  • Got C++ or C#? One of the Big Three may suit you: Godot, Unity and Unreal Engine.
  • Rust got you down? Bevy may pique your interest!
  • Python, the snake? Pygame and Godot (using GDScript, which is similar to Python) may sit right at home.
  • Do you drink Java? libGDX may quench your thirst.
  • Official Lua Lover? LÖVE and Defold were made for you. If you wanna dive retro, check out LIKO-12!
  • Flutter like leaves in August? Ignite that burning passion with Flame!
  • Gotta Go? Try stopping by Ebitengine or g3n on your way out!
  • Zoinks, using Zig now? Mach may just be your favorite solver.
  • Don’t know how to architect a specific game feature, or layout? See if learning some common Game Programming Patterns will bust you through the wall!

• If you are a code zen expert or other veteran, pick up an engine you vibe with and start ripping its docs apart! Or, try some of these advanced recommendations:
  • Got that 8-bit fever? Pixel Vision 8, PICO-8, and Pyxel are engaging and challenging!
  • Interactive fiction or text adventure from days of yore? Try it in Clojure or Ink (similar to Markdown)!
  • Forge a retro dungeon crawler-style game in JavaScript or Haskell!

• If you’re looking for an insane challenge, try writing your own from scratch – SDL2 and Electron are common starting GUI frameworks for this. Remember, you still gotta make a game!

I don't have a team!

We hear you, so we’ve devised a clever '#looking-for-team' channel on our Discord. Feel free to drop by there and engage with fellow jammers!

What if I don’t want a team?

You can do that too! Some popular Hololive fan games were made by only one person (such as HoloCure, by Kay Yu), so don’t feel pressured to! 

Does the game need to be finished?

You or your team should strive for a workable demo, but it’s more important to have fun with the process! It doesn’t have to be a fully-fledged game since you could keep working on it after the jam ends, and it doesn’t have to be complete, but you should be able to demo core game concepts or a story — something that you’re proud of, that you had fun making. It might even end up in one of our curated Showcases, so give it your best! (๑˃ᴗ˂)ﻭ

What is a Showcase?

After everyone has gotten a chance to try out each others’ games and give feedback, the staff will assemble some of the fan favorites into an edited Showcase video — a Nintendo Direct-inspired reel with back-to-back gameplay footage in minute-long intervals.

If you don’t want to be in the Showcase, that’s okay! Just let us know with your jam entry whether or not you consent, and we’ll make sure to exclude it if you don’t.

Disclaimer

• We are not affiliated with Cover Corp! HoloJam is a project organized by fans, for fans.
• HoloJam claims zero rights or ownership of your project -- never ever!
• Have fun! :D, or else…