What are your earliest memories of making games? When I was 6 or 7, I made a bunch of hand-drawn paper adventures/mazes; the player (usually my mom) pointed and told me something she wanted to do, and I informed her of the horrible misfortunes that resulted: "ha! your iron boots are too heavy, and they push down an invisible pressure plate, and that turns on a magnet that glues you to the floor! monsters pour out of the ceiling, and eat you! you lose, try again!" (look, I'm not saying the games were fun, but they did at least have specific rules I'd designed beforehand! you just had to discover them by losing repeatedly...)

Make a game inspired by your own earliest memories of making games!

There aren't many rules in this jam, but here's a Q&A to help you get a sense for what sort of games I'm hoping to see.
Let me know (@pancelor) if you have other questions!

I didn't make any games as a kid; I made my first game last year. Can I still join?

Are you sure you never made anything even remotely game-like as a kid? Some sort of make-believe game? Something like "the floor is lava"? Some sort of word game, where you could only talk in rhymes for a day?  Did you play house/restaurant/school? Did you make stories with your stuffed animals? Feel free to stretch the definition of "game" as much as you want!

Do I have to make a playable Video Game?

No! I'm planning on drawing another paper maze, in the same style as my originals, and posting the PNG. (I might also make a computerized Game Master somehow, so that you can play it without needing me to be there and tell you the Consequences of your actions)

Do I have to use the same medium I used as a kid?

e.g. if I made games using pokemon cards, do I have to use pokemon cards again?

Nope! It might be fun to do the exact same thing, but the only requirement is that your new game is inspired in some way by your old games.

Can I work in a team?

Yes. I'm not sure how exactly that would work; do you make one game inspired by everyone's first games? Or do you only draw inspiration from a single person's first games? Choose whichever you'd like, I suppose.

Can I use premade assets?

Sure. If you're asking specifically about sound effects, you might consider recording yourself making "kapow" / "zoom" / etc noises, if it fits your game's style!

Can I make a polished version of my first game?

Sure! making a polished game is within the spirit of the jam, as long as it was inspired in some way by your first games!

Is this jam ranked/rated?

No.

How long should I spend making my game?

As long as you want! I recommend making it in 1 or 2 days -- I set the jam dates to be a month long to hopefully let anyone join at their own pace and make their game when it's convenient for them. Don't feel pressured to put a month's worth of polish into this!!

When you're done, post your game and tell everyone a little story about your first games!
Let's have a nice trip down memory lane together :)