I have always enjoyed Minesweeper ever since Windows 3.1. However, many people don't realize that  much has happened since that seminal release.  Not just new graphics or slick new interfaces, but whole new play styles. And that's what this jam is about: reimagining Minesweeper.

Probably the best example in my mind of this is the excellent game that happens to be hosted here on itch.io itself, Dragon Sweeper.  It is very clearly part of the Minesweeper tradition, but reimagines it as an RPG with very interesting new mechanics that make it an entirely new experience.

One need not go as radical as that, however. Any variation on the original Minesweeper theme is worth considering. Probably not just adding a new set of icons, but even something as minor as tweaking the interface to work better is worth considering, and we here will be the judge of which one is the most innovative and the most fun, etc., etc. 

Because this is a very specific jam topic and maybe not the most broadly accessible, I am setting the jam to run for a full month, and I'm willing to accept anything that is unreleased before the start of the jam.  

Q: What even counts as mine sweeper? 

That's a good question, and I don't want to be overly narrow here. You'll certainly know it when you see it. But you could ask the question, why isn't Sudoku minesweeper? Well, it clearly isn't because there aren't dangers to reveal, and avoid. But there are some similarities there, aren't there? Look, a straight-up Sudoku will not be acceptable as a submission.  But if you could figure out some way to make a hybrid between the two, that's worth considering! 

Obviously, dragons are not mines, and yet dragonsweeper is fully within the genre. Surprises us with something interesting. Just don't just give us something that's just reskin, please.