Here's a quick summary of the jam:

• Entries should be games that either directly or indirectly lead to mailing something.
  • Directly = The game guides you through putting together a letter, postcard, package, or whatever.
  • Indirectly = The game's major focus is on mailing things, which leads the player to want to mail things IRL after playing.
• Games can be video games or physical games. Anything that's a game!
• Games can be new or previously released creations.
• You can charge money for your creations or not, it's all good either way. You deserve money for what you make, though! 
  • However, we need a copy to check it over to make sure it fits the jam, so we'll reach out to ask for a key if it's not free and there aren't community copies.
• A bundle will be put together of the entries. If you want to join, enter your email or Discord name when submitting.
• NO NSFW OR HATEFUL CONTENT ALLOWED

More Details

The challenge here is simple: make a game (videogame or physical game) that encourages people to mail letters! Or anything, really: you can make a postcard that people fill out and mail, or a video game about mailing packages that inspires people to make and mail things themselves.

You can directly take people through the act of writing a letter/postcard or boxing up a package (gamified as much as you want, of course) or make something that would excite people enough to want to do it IRL after playing the game.

For some examples:

• Our game, Operation Santa, is a TTRPG about writing letters and sending presents to kids who wrote letters to Santa.
• Our postcard collection, I Got You This, includes numerous postcard games that guide you through sending presents, greeting cards, and more.
• the world is ending and im writing letters by Wren the Forrester is a great little game where you write a letter and then you win whether they respond or not!

You can create something new for the jam or enter something you've released previously. However, the act of mailing things has to be the central aspect of the game! We'll be checking out entries, and if it isn't free and there are no community copies, we'll reach out to ask for a key so we can check it out.

Why Write Letters?

Julie on our Discord server pointed out the Prisoner Correspondence Program, which connects people with penpals who are in the prison system. I've got more about that in the "community" section as a forum post. I loved the idea so much that I considered offering to buy stamps for people when I realized... we're kinda broke ourselves, I can't do that! 🤣 But it gave me the idea to run this jam! And we'll be running a bundle with the entries (more on that later) to help people afford mailing supplies if they wanna take part or just mail stuff to people.

In addition to prisoners, I think that mailing things is fun. We mail games and zines to our Mail Club members each month and it's nice to go into the post office and mail stuff out. But mailing letters and postcards is even easier: you just throw paper in an envelope, slap a stamp on it, address it, and throw it into the mailbox! 

Sure, it takes longer, but receiving physical mail is such a wonderful surprise. Especially to a trans person who's still new to their name, or anyone who is experimenting with trying a new name out. Heck, mailing something to someone who just got married and changed their name is a fantastic reminder of their new name, too! 

And if you have the money to actually mail STUFF, like a package, that's even cooler! Who doesn't love getting random stuff in the mail? 

The Bundle

So I said earlier that there would be a bundle of the entries. It's a standard bundle: if you want to take part, include an email or Discord name so I can reach out to you with the approval link when it's over. There will be an even split of all money coming in, although some people may get 1% more than others if it's not an even number of people. This split is done by Itch, I just hit a "split evenly" button, so please don't take it personally :D

This jam ends on the 14th of April, so I'll aim for the bundle to start by early May, depending on how quickly people approve :D