This is HoneyNutFemios' first ever Birthday Game Jam! In this Game Jam, HoneyNutFemios would like a fun Adventure Game made on the RPGMaker system (if you all prefer to use SRPG Studio or RenPy however, you may use that as well. Just know HoneyNutFemios is more familiar with working with RPGMaker.)

Here are some Ground Rules for the Game Jam! 

You must apply elements from either a visual novel or an adventure game. - HoneyNutFemios' favorite games happen to be RPGs where you interact with a fun and interesting cast of characters no matter how big they are! But she also likes visual novels and wishes to play adventure games that she couldn't play when she was younger.

They must have at least two routes total. - You can have more routes, but there must be at least one fork in the road for players to make. 

It must NOT be a horror game. - As fun as horror games are, it is not the season for a good horror game for the birthday jam. 

Your entry must NOT be more than 2 hours long. - Your longest route in the game can not surpass two hours.  If the game is longer than two hours, then we can only judge the first two hours of the game.

You must ask permission to use characters from other RPGMaker franchises. - However official franchises can be parodied and/or utilized provided they have an explanation (Fire Emblem Three Houses AU where they are theater students instead for example.)

It must be Beta-Tested - Other people can help! Beta-Testing is key to that. If you can credit at least two beta-testers in your game, you have a means to a stronger product.

It must be streamable and YouTube/Twitch friendly for most of the game - as fun as it is that you can have an NSFW game, please remember people want to see the games being streamed instead of playing the game themselves!

The last and most important rule is… 

You must follow the theme. This year's theme will be: The Solstice Celebration

HoneyNutFemios' birthday happens to be just a matter of days before the first day of the Summer Solstice… or the Winter Solstice for those living in the Southern Hemisphere. Your objective for this year's game jam is to celebrate a solstice of some kind. You can either have characters explore a winter wonderland where they can build snowmen, sled down a snow-covered hill or drink hot cocoa inside the log cabin OR they can enjoy a tropical summer vacation where they can either catch waves, make a sandcastle, or enter this summer's swimsuit contest to impress the one(s) they love most. 

Here are the prizes for HoneyNutFemios' game with a different category based on the Solstice of your choice. 

First Prize: A full colored picture of YOUR character of choice enjoying the solstice celebration of your choice. You also will get a character sprite made courtesy of Hto and make a cameo appearance in HoneyNutFemios' upcoming Sandbox adventure. 

Second Prize: A flat colored picture of YOUR character of choice enjoying the solstice celebration of your choice. 

Third Prize: A black lineart picture of YOUR character of choice enjoying the solstice celebration of your choice. 

START: March 22, 2021 

END (Beginning of Judging): June 6, 2021 

END (Winner Announcement): June 15, 2021 and HoneyNutFemios' 28th Birthday! 

How HoneyNutFemios will Rate Games: She will have it categorized by combining her own personal score with the score of the game dev's peers and the audience. 

• Waifu Score: As funny as this score sounds, this is for how well you utilize characters. It will go from 1 to 5 with 1 being the lowest score, in which the non-playable characters are bland lifeless cutouts while the unique playable characters exclusively made by the dev interacting with them have more life and are more proactive and 5 being the highest, where the non-playable characters are just as if not more interesting for players to interact with than the characters exclusively made by the game dev unique to the game. If you only use characters made by HoneyNutFemios for your Game Jam however, you also will be rated on how you utilize the chemistry the characters have with each other based on the character books provided to the game devs.
• Thematic Score: How well the game dev follows the theme. It will go from 1 to 5 with 1 being the lowest score, where the only thing hinting that they're under a solstice is merely just characters saying 'it's wintertime' and not interacting with the solstice itself (so no complaints about the weather), and 5 being the highest where there are more tells that the characters are under a solstice and they interact with the solstice itself (Ex. Someone asking the player to interact with either a fan/heater/air-conditioning to moderate the temperature, or someone playing with either snow or sand.)
• Art Score: This is a more subjective score, as while HoneyNutFemios is more of an artist than an actual game dev, she should at least tell a little on what is going during CGs (drawn cutscenes), sprites and character portraits. It is from 1 to 10 with 1 being illegible stick figures, botched portrayals of snow/sand, and mostly RTP assets and 10 being clarible characters, beautiful portrayals of them interacting with the snow/sand, and unique assets exclusive to the game. [You won't get cut down points if you ask for a commission from someone else, and you can use my own sprites and face portraits provided you either do something unique with them or draw new facial expressions and/or poses for them.] 
• Gameplay Score: This is for if the plot is easier to sit through provided the gameplay is fun. You can use the default RPGMaker battle system though it must mean you have to give them something for players to have fun with. 'Rate the butts' and fashion roasting can be a way to entertain the audience with the default RPGMaker system. This is a 1-10 rating system with 1 being just another run-of-the-mill RPGMaker game where if someone were to play the game and stream it, there would be no interesting or fun interactions for players or chat to have fun with and viewers would be better off doing something else like drawing dicks on elf girls or going on Pixiv to look up 'ホムラ' and getting lots of NSFW pictures of Pyrrha from Xenoblade 2 and 10 being that it is a unique and fun experience that players and chat are having lots of fun with and even lurking viewers stumbling on a stream for the first time are excited to see what happens next. 
• 'Is It Funny?' Score: Another subjective score, rated from a 1-5. 1 represents if there are either no jokes at all or all of the jokes are insensitive and are mostly there to plainly insult characters for their race, sex, body type, orientation, or disabilities rather than their actual characters. 5 will represent a game that reminds HoneyNutFemios of cartoons and video games she really likes for the right and WRONG reasons.

Optional Character Book (for those needing characters to add into the game): https://docs.google.com/document/d/18pGVbBOHNa59gjmjSOQNpzjheCY1rTrCC1S_pJ34UXU/...

UPDATE: Judges want in on the fun as well! But they must remember when they join the Game Jam, they aren't going to win!