A themed horror jam where the winning games become part of a commercial horror anthology.
Make a horror game based around the jam's theme. That's the big requirement. Beyond that, go to town.
You can make whatever kind of horror game you want, work with however many people you want, and use whatever tools you want.
Note on voting: The itch.io voting period is being repurposed as a review period. I will personally review the submissions and select the 11 finalists during this time. Once the finalists have been selected, participating teams will receive a separate Google Form to vote on those finalists.
After the jam ends, I will personally select 11 finalists from the submissions.
Once those 11 finalists have been selected, the participating teams will vote on them using a Google Form.
Each team gets one vote, and you cannot vote for your own game. Be sportsmanly. :P
The top 5 games will be included in the commercial anthology alongside my own game.
If a game is selected, I genuinely want to make the collaboration work. That said, this is a two-way street. If a project goes seriously off the rails or the creators become difficult to work with, I reserve the right to remove it from the anthology.
If I remove a game, I will not simply replace it with the next game in line. The anthology will just have fewer games.
The anthology will be sold on itch.io under the fordizzy brand.
itch.io's co-developer/revenue-sharing system will be used so that revenue is automatically split between contributors after applicable expenses.
If you're working in a team, how your team's share is divided is your team's responsibility. The jam does not dictate how you split your revenue amongst yourselves.
You need to be able to participate in the commercial release and receive payment to enter this jam.
If you know you can't participate in the commercial release, please don't enter.
If you discover that you can't participate after entering, let me know so I don't select you as a finalist. If you discover it after becoming a finalist, let me know so I can give your spot to someone else.
If you discover it after winning... well, that would suck. Please don't do that.
You can use existing game assets and/or existing projects, so long as you give proper credit.
However, your submission cannot be a sequel or prequel to an existing game without my manual approval. I don't expect many sequel/prequel projects to be approved, so please don't build around getting an exception.
Yes, everyone's favorite part.
Use whatever you want under the hood.
I don't particularly care what tools you use to program, design systems, or otherwise build your game.
For visuals, however, I am not very interested in AI-forward products.
That doesn't mean AI-generated visuals are formally prohibited. If generative AI is used effectively as part of the game's visual identity—rather than being used as a shortcut to make an entire game's art—I have no issue with it.
AI use is not an automatic disqualification. However, finalist selection is ultimately my personal editorial decision, and I want to be transparent that extensive use of generative AI in a game's visuals may (and probably will) affect how interested I am in selecting an entry.
If you want to make something that isn't technically a game, be my guest.
I'm very open to experimental or avant-garde submissions. Just know that if I can't get it, I probably won't select it.
Feel free to add context to your submission if you think it's necessary. I'm only one type of player, and I'd love to see submissions that appeal to different sorts of people.
Because the winning games are being released as a commercial product, source code will be required from selected games.
If there's a legitimate reason you can't share some portion of your source code, talk to me. I'm flexible, and I'd rather figure out a reasonable solution than create an unnecessary problem.
Don't make porn.
Otherwise, don't censor yourself just because you think you have to.
Make the horror you want to make.
Obviously, you're still responsible for making sure your submission is something you're legally allowed to distribute.
Your game is your game.
I do not own your characters, stories, settings, concepts, or other IP. You are free to continue using them, develop them further, or take them somewhere else outside of the anthology.
If I ever want to continue working with your characters or IP, that will be a separate conversation, and I'd need your consent and ongoing, enthusiastic collaboration.
Doing things with your IP outside the bundle will not affect your credit or your share of the bundle.
I also can't promise I'll endorse everything you might eventually do with your characters. :)
For games selected for the anthology, I'm asking for the rights necessary to:
You retain ownership of your game and its IP.
The commercial rights I'm requesting are for the anthology and its promotion—not ownership of your work.
This is ultimately supposed to be fun.
I'm making my own game for this too, and I (obviously) want the anthology to be a collection of cool, weird, memorable horror games that I'm genuinely excited to put my name behind.
So take the theme, run with it, and make something awesome.
See you in October.
