Intro: "Seven O'Clock"

If you ask anyone in the past 10,000 years what they had to say about time, it would probably get responses like:

Huh? What about it? Ahh, need more tbh. SORRY GOTTA GO! It's long, coarse, flowy, and gets everywhere.

That sounds about right. In the modern bustle of deadlines and overwhelming bias towards short-term thinking, there is a certain meaning of life that gets lost in the translation of thought to action. Yet:

If you enjoyed the time you wasted, then 'twas not a waste of time.

Like here you are, reading this intro crafted with artisanal detail and eloquent flair, that took time to produce. It probably took more time to think about than to type, but that's with most things that had a real hand's touch... most importantly, it was fun!

Whether that means fun to have written or read is for you to decide, probably.

Speaking of touch... if you've made it this far, you probably have a bit of time to spare, huh? Why not give the jam some thought, spend some of the valuable currency crafting in our halls for a change? Or, in simpler terms:

Are you prepared to sacrifice some time, or are you all out?

Rules

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

2. No explicit NSFW content or horny submissions! 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! This also means no updates during the review period after submission. Cover Corp / Hololive official branding, icons, and logos; and open-source game assets can be used per their Guidelines and applicable licenses, with credit.

5. Grace interval. After Jam Phase ends, for 2 days, updates to submissions are permitted. Uploads are closed after this time to ensure that jammers finish development at the end of the jam.

Note that submission pages can always be edited as normal!

What’s the theme?

⌚「 」

• tbd!
• tbd!
• tbd!

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

What are those three helpers? We always provide those with the statement -- you can leverage zero, one, or any of them to help your ideation! They are optional, designed to help with context or inspiration if you don't yet have ideas.

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!

(Check the FAQ if you're curious to know why we use Discord for community, outside of social media!)

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?
• Creativity
  • Does the game break the fold and challenge your gamer conceptions by having innovative approaches, creative new takes on 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 / Humor
  • (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?
  • Alternatively, does the writing strike a funny bone? Does some game mechanic make you double over in laughter?

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!

Do I have to use the character(s) depicted for the jam?

No! We often (but not always!) set one or more talents as the centerpiece for our advertising because it makes our life really easy during jam content production. We will not judge your game on the talents portrayed.

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 want a quick reference, just pick one of the Big Three: Godot, Unity or Unreal Engine)

• 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' system on our Discord. Feel free to drop by there and engage with fellow jammers!

Important note: finding a team can be a difficult and stressful thing sometimes, we absolutely understand -- BUT! You can help us, yourself, and other devs out by being proactive in talking to one another (break the ice!), conveying initial thoughts and ideas, and assessing whether you'll be a good fit together. All are good soft skills to learn!

This isn't high school or university where you get forced together, after all... get out there and meet your devs!

Otherwise, nothing is going to happen, you won't find or form a team, and you'll kick yourself for not doing it. (been there... _(´ཀ`」 ∠)

What if I don’t want a team?

You can do that too! Some popular Hololive fan games were originally made by only one person (such as HoloCure, by Kay Yu), and even some holo Indie official releases too, so don’t feel pressured to.

The inverse is true, however: don't feel pressured to make a game all by yourself.

One thing we will stress, as many veteran game devs do: teamwork is an important skill, and sometimes even necessary enabler! Games can get big and complex really quickly, so at some point you might outpace yourself if you're not an organizing master or project wizard.

Why Discord only?

We know that consolidating community to a single, non-internet-indexable server owned by some random social media company is seen in a bad light, we do. But nurturing a continuous platform where our devs feel comfortable and cozy is one of our strongest goals, so the overhead of managing an itch community board per-jam just feels... unnecessary... and transient. Yeah. Sorry! Even social media platforms like X/Twitter and Bluesky are better places to share comms (and for reach, we do!). 🤷‍♂️

(and yes, many of the platforms mentioned suffer from the class problem of Enshittification™... but there's nothing we can do about it right now.)

Is all of Holopro (Holostars, etc) okay too?

Yes! A true holofan loves and appreciates every talent that puts their blood, sweat, and tears into being a Holomem, no matter what.

We do not tolerate discrimination or hate directed towards any idol, group, branch, or developer. If you find you have a personal problem with this,  you may wish to learn how to tolerate it -- or reconsider joining, and instead seek greener pastures!

Are other VTubers okay too?

Yes! We're a pretty darn wide-reaching community, so it's inevitable some freaky fantomes, dragoons, nightmares, or other fans will come our way too. All the same rules apply... we encourage you to try and make sly Holo references to make up for it >:)

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, but you should have a polished functional prototype of core game concepts or a story — something that you’re proud of, that you had fun making. That doesn't mean you can slack off and submit a half-baked game, though.

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 include a curated gameplay trailer with your game's page, this makes it easier!

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.

I'm a content creator. How do I stream HoloJam games?

Although HoloJam games are not published under holo Indie, we defer to the blanket of holo Indie streaming guidelines (found at https://ccmc-corp.com/en/terms/) for what is sensible -- in brief, it is always chill as long as you give authors and links in desc and don't make a bad name of Cover Corp IP or authors; normal streaming-case commercial use including members-only is allowed.

An important exception to this blanket is that some HoloJam developers may refuse consent to their submission being used for our showcase, which doubles as a stream permission. To respect this decision, you must consult the historical list of HoloJam entries here via the "can_stream" column.

If you are uncertain of anything here, or you are a dev who wishes to modify their entries in that hand-curated database, please reach out to a Staff-san via Discord or by email!

Disclaimer

• We work closely with holo Indie, but 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…