Welcome

To celebrate the launch of Horror Game Kit 1.5, we’re bringing you a new type of challenge! We’re providing detailed theme settings to help you enhance your game development skills by incorporating popular elements in horror game design. 

Plus, you'll learn to promote your game by completing a video creation task.

Theme

Megalophobia

In this game jam, you will design a horror game centered around Megalophobia—the fear of large objects. Whether it's towering buildings, colossal creatures, or gigantic machinery, the player’s deepest fears are tied to overwhelming size and scale. The game will immerse players in environments where the sheer size of their surroundings creates a sense of dread and helplessness. From navigating abandoned factories filled with massive machines to facing titanic monsters, players must overcome their fear to survive.

Please note: The content provided in this background is intended to help jammers understand the theme. You are free to interpret and develop the theme as you wish. The final game does not need to strictly follow the background story.

Key Features:

- Overwhelming Scale: Create environments and encounters where the size of objects or creatures triggers a deep sense of unease and fear. This can include towering structures, oversized animals, or gargantuan machines.

- Story Background: Please create your own storyline that fits the theme.

- Atmospheric Horror: Use environmental design to emphasize the player's smallness, making them feel insignificant and powerless in the face of massive, imposing objects.

Hints:

1. Explore how fear can be evoked by size alone. Think of giant shadows, distant rumblings, and towering figures that loom over the player.

2. Use visual and auditory cues to build tension, such as creaking structures or the thunderous steps of a large creature, enhancing the megalophobia experience.

3. Incorporate puzzles or challenges that require players to interact with large objects or navigate spaces designed to emphasize the fear of overwhelming scale.

Special Task

1. We have prepared a tutorial on how to replace Lever Puzzle, and now we invite you to try replacing it in your own game!

2. Take a screenshot or record a video of the Lever Puzzle in your game and put it on your game itch submission page.

3. We will give you additonal 10 points to your game if you do 1&2!

4. Looking forward to seeing your puzzle!

Awards

1st place * 1 - 100USD$

2nd place * 1 - 70USD$

3rd place * 1 - 50USD$

Participation Prize * n - 30USD$

Best Decoration * 1 - 10USD$

Rising Star Award * n - 10-50USD$

The Rising Star Award is designed to help and motivate game creators to increase the attention of their games and  promote the feedback and communication among game enthusiasts.

The awarding rule is that if the number of downloads exceeds 100, we will give an additional reward corresponding to 10% of the number of downloads. Each 100 downloads is counted as a level interval. For example, if the number of downloads reaches 100, we will offer a reward of 10USD$; If it reaches 200, we will offer a reward of 20USD$. The upper limit of the bonus is 50USD$. We will conduct data statistics according to the download data within 7 days after the end of each Game jam.

Based on our experience, we suggest that everyone carry out more game promotion activities outside the website and carefully decorate their own game pages.

Some tips for increasing the number of downloads：

1. Detailed game introductions

2. A more exquisite display page

3. High-quality video presentation

4. Actively spread on various major social networking platforms

NOTE: We encourage everyone to share the game with external groups. But to ensure the fairness of award distribution, we will check the authenticity of the download data. We reserve the final right of interpretation for this activity.

How to Join

Official Jam

1. Sign up for the challenge by joining the jam on this page.

2. Submit your game project on this itch.io page.

3. Record the most exciting part of your game (less than one minute) or capture some exciting moments during your development process and upload it to YouTube as a short video. Make sure to mention us by @yahahastudios to submit the video, and use the hashtags #megalophobia and #horrorgaming.  (Please make it public, or we cannot receive your video).

Rules

To be a valid submission, please follow these requirements:

1. Create and publish an original project. (AI tools, including the YAHAHA AI scene generator and 3D model generation, are allowed and not prohibited at any stage of the creation process.)

2.  Your submitted games should be made with the Horror Game Kit within YAHAHA Studio.

3. Get a score over 60 and submit all the required materials (project + video) to qualify for the participation prize.

4. When editing the itch page, enter "yahaha" "horror" in the tag field. 

5.  Send the co-author to HorrorHatch (https://horror-hatch.itch.io/)  before uploading.

Rating Rules