2022 marks a milestone of sorts.

Not only has Tofu Sheets Visual marked its 10th year as of March, this August I will be turning 30 years old! I know, I can't believe it either lol.

Out of a mixture of boredom and not knowing what else to do to celebrate, I decided why not make a birthday jam? A little self-indulgent, but perhaps it'll be fun.

The idea is simple. Make a game that I would like! That's it. It doesn't have to be some sprawling epic either, a game that's 10 minutes long or only 1000 words in length suffices just as much and will be no less appreciated! Heck, it doesn't even have to be a video game. TTRPGs that use standard playing cards and/or six-sided dice are welcome too!

With that said, obviously there's certain criteria to follow. Do not be intimidated by the length of this list; I simply like a lot of things, and it's to provide a lot of variety and inspiration. You do not need to include everything lol.

So what type of games would the birthday girl like to play? 

• First person shooters or walking simulators, DOOM TCs (use Freedoom as your IWAD) etc.
• Visual novels! Kinetic/linear stories are welcome too. 
• Computer RPGs, be it western or jRPG style, 2D preferred
• Text adventures made in Twine, no images or music in-game, just carried by the branching narrative 
• Bitsy games, music/sound is optional to have
• Fighting games or side scrolling beat 'em ups are always super fun
• TTRPGs with simple mechanics (playing cards and/or six-sided dice). Bonus if you can play solo!

And what kind of games?

• I like a slew of genres. Comedy, horror, mystery, fantasy, sci-fi, post-apocalyptic, slice-of-life, etc.!
• Romance is optional, but if there's any, I like either Bishoujo (male MC + female LIs) or Otome (female MC + male LIs) 
• I really love me some good plot. Or something just totally ridiculous and absurd. 
• Mecha.
• If you know me well enough, anything else I like that you can think of lol

And what (optional) extras will score you bonus points?

• Voice acting! Whether it's a few snippets here or there, or fully, I just love voice acting!
• Cutscenes! I love games with cutscenes
• Intro videos, typically seen for VNs and RPGs, always fun
• For text adventures, if you have external character profiles and art to help me visualize the world in a separate .PDF that would be so awesome!!!
• Walkthroughs to consult in case I get stuck anywhere (especially helpful for branching/multi-ended games)
• I have a soft spot for so bad it's good style games
• Anime/manga art style
• Retro or pixel style games

With that out of the way, what are obvious no-no's?

• NSFW/18+/Erotica/Hentai. No, please. 
• I despise jumpscares, body horror, and excessive gore
• Not a fan of excessive language. So no hard hitters like sh**, f***, or anything deragatory. Light "hell", "damn" etc. is fine. 
• Anything that doesn't fit the criteria.

Any other rules?

• Be nice to your fellow jammers!
• Only submit games you explicitly meant for this jam. Exceptions are if something you already have planned happens to fit the criteria, go ahead! Go nuts, submit it! ^^
• If you already have an idea, no need to wait 'till jam start. 
• Prototypes and demos are acceptable
• You are allowed to use any pre-made assets, frameworks, or repurposes (or straight up recycling) of your own assets. Properly credit the things you use!
• With that being said, do not use assets you are NOT allowed to use (like rips from other games, etc.)
• No troll submissions. Anything that was obviously not made for the jam, in poor taste/against/doesn't fit the criteria, etc etc. will be removed.
• You can submit your project to other concurrent jams, so long as it follows their rules and criteria
• If you're using a browser based engine (like Twine and Bitsy), please also provide a .zip with the game's HTML file + any other assets it needs. I like to backup my favorite games. 

You may have noticed this jam is ranked. Here's how it'll work:

• Depending on the amount of entries, I will be picking my top favorites (either 5, 3, or 1) which will be known as "Birthday Girl's Choice"
• We will have voting for all submitters & contributors that will last 1 whole week to encourage trying fellow jammers' entries and the winner(s) will be known as "Jammers' Choice"
• There's no prizes, aside from my love and affection lol. Well, I might try to at least LP my top picks. But for sure all your games will get comments and ratings from me!

Okay, that was more long winded than I anticipated. But there you have it. In a nutshell, make a game I would enjoy playing. That's it. Hope you have fun and I am super excited to see what you all make!

Banner credits: azurextwlight, El.Seth, tashaj4de, ComiPo! / Thumbnail credits: me, lazily drawn in MS Paint