THEME ANNOUNCEMENT: Nostalgia

This theme is intentionally broad to inspire your game but not restrict it! Here's some thoughts if you're looking for inspiration:

• Think back to the games you played when you were younger that made you enthusiastic about games
• Childhood friendships and family - holidays and events that you look back on fondly
• Genre's of games that were established in your childhood
• Activities that used to bring joy when you were younger
• Exploring memories

Charity fund raising page can be found: https://www.justgiving.com/page/honest-jam-7?utm_term=NAAVgNy4J

Dan will donate:

• £1 per game jam entry
• £1 extra if the entry has intentful accessibility options / considerations

The Jam

The SEVENTH official Honest Jam, hosted by HonestDanGames! The aim is to host a more relaxed jam, where people can challenge their selves to create and learn at a pace that suits their own schedules and skillset. The jam runs over 9 days, but you are not expected to submit 9 days worth of work - the time frame is intended to make the gamejam more accessible for people who can't just cram for 2-3 days straight. Two weekends and 5 week days - hopefully that gives you a chance to take part!

Dan will be streaming throughout the week of the Honest Jam on Twitch! He will be raising money for SpecialEffect and will be donating £1* of his own money for every game submitted to the jam. Last December we raised over £2250 for Cancer Research, which was amazing! Feel free to join the community discord and share your progress over the duration of the jam!

The Theme

A theme will be announced on the Saturday at 12:00 UK Time (GMT) on my Twitch channel. 

How does it work?

Here's expectations for the Honest Jam:

• Over a week long, to allow people who work / have other commitments to still take part in a jam. 
• You are discouraged from using the entire duration of the jam to cram in as much work as possible!
• You are encouraged to create your game from scratch! Naturally you can copy-paste some generic code you've written in the past. If you want to use an asset pack to fill a gap you can't fulfil yourself, then go ahead - but please state it clearly on the submission page. The key thing here is to be respectful and do not misrepresent your efforts.
• You are encouraged to create a game that's inspired by the theme!
• Honest Dan will play and give feedback to every game submitted, likely during the week(s) following the Jam's conclusion.
• Everyone who submits a game is a winner. People are encouraged to play each others games and give feedback, but there is no individual "winner".

Making games alone can be lonely. We want contributors to feel they can communicate during the jam, share progress screen shots, and ask for general support if they need. Dan will be streaming on Twitch during the Jam Week,  so feel free to hang out in Twitch chat when you're working. The community Discord also has a section dedicated to the Game Jam.

Submissions

• You are encouraged to submit your efforts, even if you didn't finish on time! Even if unplayable, feel free to share a design doc or share a video of any game footage you've got.  Be proud of your effort!
• Do your best to submit before the jam deadline. If you miss the deadline, get in touch with me via Discord so I can provide you with a late submission link!
• Do not submit games you have made outside of the game jam's duration. Sounds pretty obvious, but from previous experience this regrettably has to be said! 
• If you created a game for another game jam during this jam's duration and it still fits the theme - then you are welcome to submit it.

Streaming & Discord

• There will be a theme announcement stream at 12:00 (noon UK time) on Saturday the 7th of December!
• I will be streaming my own game jam entry on Twitch , throughout both weekends and during the weekdays.
• Feel free to stream your own development! Use the tag #honestjam and choose the Software and Game Development category on Twitch.
• If you want to share your progress, there's a channel just for jam on the Discord for text chat, progress pictures and videos!

Who is Honest Dan? 

Dan is a professional game developer from Wales, who first started off his game dev journey back on Twitch in 2017. He streamed his learning full time for 18 months, before getting hired in a UK-based game dev studio in 2019. He still streams today, though is unable to stream as often due to work commitments.

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 submit a finished game?
Answer: Feel free to submit only a game design doc or some character designs and concepts if that's all you have time / want to do! Remember that board games and card games are also a valid format for a game jam game (though if you want me to play it it'll need to be exported into Table Top Simulator)

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: Ideally 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.

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* = up to 200 genuine submissions.