NOW LIVE

Charity fundraising page: https://www.justgiving.com/page/honest-jam-6

The Pacifist Jam is now live! You have 9 whole days to find time to be creative and make something! This jam is a less competitive jam than others, so if things don’t go to plan (and let's be honest, they rarely do during a jam!) - don’t quit or feel you can’t submit an unfinished entry. There is no additional theme other than conforming to the “pacifist jam” rules. There are some optional modifiers you can try and incorporate into your entry, for a challenge and to help us raise more money for Cancer Research.

Dan will donate:

• £1 per jam entry submitted
• A bonus £1 per modifier included in the entry

Optional Modifiers:

• SCALES. Your game’s characters are reptiles (my wife loves Lizards, so this modifier is a tribute to her love for lizards). 
• KARAOKE. Your game’s music includes vocals and lyrics written and performed by yourself.
• MORE THAN WORDS: Your entire game, including menus, ui and narrative, uses no written words (use symbols, gestures, imagery instead).
• BUTTON FEEDBACK QUEEN: All UI buttons must have over-the-top button feedback. Standard changing of colour is not sufficient. (My wife gives feedback to game jam games on stream and always comments on button feedback)
• CLOSE TO HOME. Your game’s story / mechanic is based around cancer (such as the impact of cancer on people or the journey people go through).

During the jam I’ll be streaming regularly on https://www.twitch.tv/honestdangames

To support our charity fund-raising, you can donate here: https://www.justgiving.com/page/honest-jam-6. I recommend popping to the stream when I’m live to donate so I can thank you directly! 

 To keep in touch outside of streams, feel free to join the community discord here: https://discord.gg/hQkyrjPEwg 

At the end of the jam, I will play through all submissions (if they are web games - for safety reasons). If you have a game that can’t be ported to web, feel free to record a playthrough and share it to let people have a safe way to check out your game.

Thanks for taking part, and goodluck!

The Jam

This jam is a special edition of the Honest Jam, known as the "The Pacifist" jam! As usual, this is a non-cram jam, where we discourage working flat-out for the jam duration, but instead have a generous 9-day jam duration to allow people to  take part around their busy schedules / lives! Please don't burn yourself out, and submit whatever you make - no shame in not finishing! Game Designs and Prototypes are welcome, along with board games!

Non-violent Games

I've spent time reflecting on the sheer amount of violence/combat orientated video games. Whilst I don't think this is a problem especially, I'm interested in challenging developers to come up with fun game ideas that avoid violence, combat or physical confrontation. The term "enemies" or "baddies" has become such standard terms in gaming - I wonder how many games we can design and make without goodies vs baddies, or designated entities that we are justified in killing!

All entries should focus on creating a game where violent interactions are not the core mechanic of the game.  This isn't black and white, and should be used as a guideline not a hard rule! It's doesn't have to be a "cute" or "cozy" game. To help, here are some examples:

Avoid

• A shooter game where the objective is to shoot enemies / other players
• A beat-em-up game where you must punch / kick / use special moves on opponents
• A hack-n-slash game where you defeat enemies in order to open a door to the next area.
• A platformer where you jump on enemies to earn coins / remove threats
• A card game where you play cards that represent monsters to fight against an opposing players set of monsters.
• A stealth game where you sneak around and kill / physically take out enemies

Acceptable

• Games that cover the topics of death / war
• Mechanics where you interact with out players physically, such as "bumping into each other", but where it isn't the primary game mechanic.
• A game where you bounce off other characters' heads in order to make a jumping puzzles
• Games that handle confrontation in a non physical manifestation

Theme

Due to the natural limitation of the Pacifist Jam, I will not be setting any additional jam theme - which hopefully helps people be creative and make games on themes and topics that they are passionate about / excited to explore.

Charity

We will be raising money for a cancer charity during the jam. My wife and community favourite Elysia sadly got diagnosed with cancer this year and is currently going through treatment. Developments in treatment means she has a fair chance to survive, where as 20 years ago it'd be a different story.

More information about how to support will be announced during the jam week and on my Twitch Stream.

Community

Any suggestions, questions or if you're excited to join - use the community section or discord! Join the Honest Dan community discord  here https://discord.gg/Zmp5f5ARqQ. 

You can catch me on Twitch Monday evenings at https://www.twitch.tv/honestdangames.  Finally, tutorials, game dev interviews, jam highlights and more can be found on my YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/honestdangames.  

FAQ

Question: Do I have to make a non-violent / peaceful game?
Answer: There is no hard-rules or disqualification, but ideally entries should be driven by the theme, rather than the theme just be an after-thought.

Question: Is <insert idea> considered violent?
Answer: Try and consider if the idea revolves around violence. For example: If you made a game where a character gets shot as part of your game's story - that is fine. However, if the gameplay revolves around shooting people, then it is not fine.  Another example: If you have a racing game, it is okay that cars can collide. However, it shouldn't be encouraged or rewarded, if anything it should be disadvantageous to collide with other cars.

Question: Can I use a 3d model / audio asset pack made by someone else?
Answer: As mentioned earlier, if you are unable to do so yourself - yes you can but you must state it clearly when submitting your game.

Question: Should I still take part if I'm busy for half the jam duration?
Answer: YES! That's the point of it being 9 days, to allow people to take part around their busy lives! Entrants aren't expected to work flat out for 9 days.

Question: Is it ok if I do concept art / rough story planning before the jam?
Answer: Ideally it'd be done during the jam window, but as long as you're not creating assets / content for your game. So maybe think out a story, but don't write the script? and draw things but don't use them in-game?

Question: Can I continue a game I already started?
Answer: No, the point of the jam is to start a project and end it within the 9 day period! The same goes for using existing code / assets - ideally avoid it, but if its the difference between you being able to take part or not - then you can. If you do use existing assets / code, please state it on your game page clearly.