Welcome to the Culture Bytes Jam Series: Bread Jam

Culture Bytes is a series of jams aimed at creating unique interactive experiences, under the context of ideas, perspectives, issues, and themes relevant to members of various Diasporas, over a 1-2 week period.   Exploring the African Diaspora is the current focus of the jam series.

The purpose of this jam series is: 

1) To create experiences that are related to themes relevant to members of Diasporas (ie. African Diaspora, Indian Diaspora, Chinese Diaspora, etc)

2) To give creators more time to make something interesting without being as stressed/pressed for time. 

3) To collaborate and foster creative friendships in our journeys for self expression and our collective futures.

Theme:  "Feels Like Home"

What makes you feel like home? food? music? smell? art? Make a game that shows what makes you feel at home and at ease. Maybe it's how you make others feel at home. visual novel, narrative game, exploration, or maybe even a puzzle game to get your idea across.

Optional Themes: 

• Exploration: Explore the world, your home, your room. pick things up, put things down. walking simulators 
• Relive a memory: Think about ways that we remember things or special moments. maybe use flashbacks? sounds cues? 
• Cozy Simulator: reflect on a favorite self-care routine, chore you like to do while inebriated, dish you like to make, etc

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There are particular themes, experiences, and perspectives that are part of the lives of many individuals of the African Diaspora that are not explored often enough in games.  We want creators to have fun making games exploring themes that are relevant to the African Diaspora - past, present, and very importantly, the future. 

Whether you are experienced with game jams or not, this is for you.  No Stress.  

Brought to you by the Melanated Game Kitchen (MGK)

So you want to participate?

This jam is open to both digital and analog interactive experiences – choose the medium that excites you!

Join our Discord to discuss the theme, share resources, and find team members!  Collaboration is a key part of our culture. 

This jam is for creators of all relevant skills and experience levels, regardless of whether you have made interactive experiences before or not.  Writing, art, design, music/sound design, programming, playtest expertise, etc. There are some skill experts in the discord group that can help out when you need (we're continually bringing in new skill experts to cover

We highly recommend submitting works-in-progress if you don't finish over the course of the jam, as you can always submit a more complete version later, and we love to learn more about what everyone worked on! We hope to share everyone's progress, regardless of full game completion, during our closing showcase stream. 

"But Tim, I want to join the fun but don't want to make anything."  Bet. We'll be streaming some of our co-work sessions and our showcase.  During those events, non-participants can join in discussions, brainstorming, and feedback sessions.

If you can't make this game jam, no worries. This is a jam "series".  We are planning to do 1 game jam a month for...as long as we can.  So sign up for the MGK Newsletter (link below) to be notified when we announce the next jam in the series! 

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Please sign up for our mailing list to be notified about future major Jam announcements.

Discord Link: https://discord.gg/cbVpD5mkrd

MGK Newsletter Signup Form: http://eepurl.com/httsfT

(Your email will ONLY be used for important announcements related to the game jam series or the Melanated Game Kitchen.)

We are aiming to make this a great experience for everyone involved and continue to improve this jam.  We are looking for more team members! If you are interested in helping with the jam series or the jam, fill out this survey and we'll be in touch!

Volunteer Signup Form: https://forms.gle/evmQ3DjUZsWckiwT7

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Jam Schedule

• Sunday, July 25th: Kickoff Stream via YouTube @ 3pm - www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xGcDqZM4VM - Jam Kickoff, Theme Reveal & Team Forming
• Sunday, July 25th: Co-Work Session @ 4pm - Look for Teammates!  Co-work in Discord with other Jammers & Community Member. 
• Friday, July 30th: Co-Work Session @ 6pm - Co-work in Discord with other Jammers & Community Members
• Sunday, August 1st: Submissions Due @ 3pm
• Sunday, August 1st: Showcase & Feedback Session @ 5pm - Let's play games from the jam and share feedback!  

Works

• Venba Indie Game, An indian narrative Cooking Game:  https://store.steampowered.com/app/1491670/Venba/ 
• Article Traveling Through Your Sense of Smell: https://www.forbes.com/sites/wendyaltschuler/2020/05/23/a-powerful-way-to-travel... 
• MOAD Smithsonian on Music across the African Diaspora: https://www.moadsf.org/wells-fargo-heritage-center-overview/adaptation/adaptatio... 
• Article on Feeling at home while traveling: https://theartofsimple.net/hometravel/ 

General Works for the Culture Bytes Jam Series

• https://thewagaduchronicles.com/ - An upcoming Afrofantasy Online RPG & DnD Setting by Twin Drums
• https://motherlandsrpg.com/ - POC focused sci-fi RPG on twitch 
• https://www.organizingforpower.org/ - In-Depth site with resources, tools, and readings for anyone that is interested in creation positive social change.  
• https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race/topics - The National Museum of African American History and Culture’s site detailing in-depth learning resources related to the history of race in America and how that affects our society now. 
• www.knarrative.com - Web platform for the largest African Studies courses in the world.  A great resource for learning history through an Pan-African lens. 

Rules

• Most community conversation for this jam will happen via the MGK Discord -> https://discord.gg/cbVpD5mkrd
• We encourage you to jam with new people or on a team, but it is not required. We will be providing resources for team forming at the jam kickoff and throughout the jam timeline for those who want to jam based on the theme.
• During the Showcase/Feedback Session, constructive feedback and positive reinforcement will be the focus.  Building for the future and collaboration are about lifting everyone up together.  
• All participants, in person or remote, must follow MGK’s Code of Conduct (in a section below)

Recommended Tools/Engines/Platforms

Here are some common tools/engines:

• Digital
  • Unity
  • Unreal Engine 4
  • Game Maker
  • Godot Engine
  • RPG Maker
  • Twine
  • Storyspace
  • Bitsy
• Analog
  • Tabletop RPG
  • Board Game
  • etc.

Resources (you don’t have to use these, just some ideas)

• Music Composing: Bosca Coeil (https://boscaceoil.net/), lmms (https://lmms.io/)
• Sound Effects Generator: sfxr (http://www.drpetter.se/project_sfxr.html)
• 2D Art: Paint.NET (https://www.getpaint.net/), Asesprite (buy it or compile the sources), Krita (https://krita.org/en/)
• 3D Art: Blender (https://www.blender.org/)
• Coding: Visual Studio (https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/de/vs/), Visual Studio Code (https://code.visualstudio.com/?wt.mc_id=DX_841432)

Code of Conduct

We will not tolerate sexism, racism, or discrimination of any kind.  This means, in our community and in the games you create. 

F.A.Q.

• Do I need to be a member of the African Diaspora to participate?
  • Nah.  Anyone and everyone can (and should) participate!  The biggest thing we ask is that you utilize the resources that are given for the jam and make an effort to see from the perspective of people who are of the African Diaspora.  
• Who is included in the African Diaspora?
  • Anyone that has ancestral heritage connected to Africa. That meaning, Brazilian, Jamaican, Haitian, Spanish, African-American, and many other groups.  
• What is Pan-Africanism? 
  • "Pan Africanism is a political philosophy that represents a belief in the laws and representation that benefit Africans across the Diaspora. Ideological Ideas: Collectivism, Independent Political Representation, Ubuntu The Flag: The colors represent the blood of our Ancestors, the melanin of the original people, and the wealth and prosperity of our African homeland." - panafricanalliance.com
• What is the Melanated Game Kitchen?
  • The Melanated Game Kitchen is a growing community of game devs from across the African Diaspora, working together to create interactive works "for da culture." Make friends, share ideas, create. Thanks for joining our kitchen!