Hello, friends! Thanks for joining the first annual Imaginary Game Jam! This year, I’d like to highlight Imaginary Game Studios’ first mascot character, Metic. Who is Metic, you ask? Well, Metic is a helpful guide on board a futuristic spaceship designed to help players achieve their health goals. Metic is adventurous, thoughtful, and first and foremost – supportive! You can check out his game, Meticulous, on Steam, or just watch a couple of videos over on the Imaginary Game Studios YouTube Channel to get the gist. That said, you’re welcome to interpret his character however you like! Your game doesn't have to be about health, and the setting can be sci-fi, fantasy, slice-of-life – anything is fair game. Oh, and like many game jams, there will also be a bonus theme, TBA – stay tuned!  

The Theme for the Imaginary Game Jam 2024 is Troll!

The Imaginary Game Jam is a two week long game jam running from June 23^rd to July 6^th for solo developers (the “Submission Period”). The theme will be announced at the beginning of the Submission Period. To access the provided assets, please join the Imaginary Game Studios Discord server. Winners will be announced on July 21^st in the Discord server. Game submissions may be featured live on stream the weeks of July 6^th – July 20^th.

 Imaginary Game Jam Rules

Judging:

During the two weeks after the Submission Period, Imaginary Game Studios will evaluate and score your submissions. Our judges will be stack ranking games according to each category, and determining overall scoring by the sum of each category. All categories will be weighted equally. We will be evaluating the following criteria:

• Theme: How well does the game honor the theme? Does the game interpret the theme in a fun and interesting way?
• Metic Cameo: How well is Metic incorporated into the game?
• Imaginative: How unique is this game? Does this game surprise and inspire?
• Gestalt: How well do the audio, art style, narrative, and design work together? How well does the game take full advantage of 'video games' as a medium?
• Funny: How many chuckles does this game evoke?
• Community Scoring: What does the community choose as their favorites? Community Scoring will be done by on the submission page of each entry on itch.io. Only participants who have submitted an entry will be eligible to provide a score. Please do your best to play and score as many games as you have time for!

With the exception of Community Scoring, the judges will make their selections in their subjective, good faith determination (or judgment). Winners will be announced on or after July 20^th.

Payouts for winners (and a participation prize):

• Total pool of $1,000 USD allocated as follows:
  • 1st Place Overall: 40%, $400 USD
  • 2nd Place Overall: 20%, $200 USD
  • 3rd Place Overall: 10%, $100 USD
  • Best Theme / Best Metic Cameo / Most Imaginative / Best Gestalt / Most Funny / Community Favorite: 5% each, $50 USD each
• Participation Prize: 1 Free Copy of Meticulous for Steam

*Entrants can only qualify for one payout. The highest eligible payout will be selected per entrant. In the event of a tie between entries in Community Scoring, Imaginary Game Studios reserves the right to raise one of the tied entrants’ Community Scoring score up by 0.01 points for consideration of payouts.

**Winning entrants will have up to 30 days to claim their payout. Payouts will be provided by either US PayPal or Steam Gift Card. No substitute payment options will be provided.

Requirements for Compensation:

• The game must be developed during the submission period.
• The game must be developed individually (a team size of one). You're welcome to use asset packs / any assets you have the right to use so long as they are properly attributed. Custom assets will be considered favorably in judging.**
• The game must incorporate Metic in some way.
• The game must feature the Imaginary Game Jam logo on the main menu / credits / wherever best applicable for your game.
• The game must be approximately E or T rated (e.g., no explicit sex scenes, no extreme violence, no mature language, etc.).
• The game must be single player.
• The game must be playable on PC / in browser.
• The entrant must be 18 or older.

*You're welcome to submit any game project, but only those that follow the requirements are eligible to receive compensation. If you would like to excuse yourself from compensation for any reason, please state “I excuse myself from compensation” anywhere on your game’s itch.io page.

**If you have non-developer friends who wish to contribute assets (art, models, UI, music, etc.) but are unable to submit their own entry, that’s great! Please direct them to share their contributions on the Imaginary Game Studios Discord server. Our goal is to make the best games we can, and we’re all in this together! 🙂

Provided Assets:

• Up to 250 words of recorded dialogue in Metic's voice. Must be requested in the Imaginary Game Studios Discord server before the end of the first week, and will be fulfilled in the order the requests are made. No explicit language will be recorded.  
• Metic model / animations
• Assorted textured models (coins, platforms, doors, etc.)
• BGM
• Assorted SFX

*You are not required to use any provided assets. You are welcome and encouraged to create your own representation of Metic using any art style you choose. You can access the provided assets via the Imaginary Game Studios Discord server.

**You're free to use any provided assets for the purposes of developing a game for this particular game jam, but not for any other purpose. You own the rights to any unique IP you develop in the course of the game jam, but you are not being granted ownership over any IP belonging to Imaginary Game Studios.

We reserve the right to revise these Rules in our sole and absolute discretion.