This jam is now over. It ran from 2023-07-21 04:00:00 to 2023-07-31 04:00:00. View 155 entries


Back at it again with the micro-VNs!

The "Only One of Any Asset" (O2A2) Visual Novel Jam is back again for 2023!

We welcome developers of all skill levels, whether you're completely new and want to make your first game or a veteran who's been grinding at a long-term project, to challenge yourself to make a micro visual novel. O2A2 is a low pressure, anti-crunch, non-competitive jam without judging; everyone who completes a game by the deadline is a winner!

NEW THIS ROUND: Due to the changing landscape of indie games development, we recognize that a crunch-free jam is difficult to maintain in the old week-long jam format. Therefore, we're now extending the length of the jam to be ten days long. Please use this time to balance work and rest adequately, and don't wait until the last minute!

Links to previous editions of the jam can be found below:

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Why participate?

We think O2A2 has a special place in the midst of all the other jams as we want to emphasize quality over quantity. This is a jam with a low barrier to entry that also allows experienced developers to experiment with ideas and presentation, so there's something for everyone to challenge themselves with! We've seen creators who've used their entries as a springboard to their development career as well. Get that drabble out into the world and make yourself a little game for your portfolio. What story will you tell?

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What are the rules?

You can use at most:

  • one sprite / one character / one pose (multiple expressions without change in pose are okay)
  • one background / one place / one time of day
  • one illustration (in place of the one sprite and one background)
  • one thousand words
  • one background sound file (either one music track or one ambient background noise)
  • one sound effect
  • one voice actor
  • one piece of menu background art
  • one main project (submit only one entry where you are the creative lead/director or owner of an account. You may participate in other teams as a different role)

There are no restrictions on:

  • themes / genres (e.g. romance, horror, comedy)
  • suggestive/explicit or violent content (so long as such content is tagged appropriately on the game page)
  • using Creative Commons, similarly licensed free-to-use, or paid assets
  • usage of solid color backgrounds (all white, black, or other)
  • programming and scripting effects
  • minigames, so long the main portion of your entry can be considered a VN (e.g. point and click, fill in the blank/Madlibs, etc. all OK!)
  • special effects / movement / zoom / animation (such as blinking, lipflap/mouth movement, sparkles, moving side to side, etc. Complex frame-by-frame animations that would change a significant portion of an image are not allowed.)
  • custom GUI assets like buttons, text boxes, textures and other elements
  • price point of completed entries
  • submitting your entry to other jams (as long as you follow the rules of those jams!)
  • language your game is in, you're free to write your game in a language other than English as long as it's equivalent to one thousand words
  • omake/fandiscs and fangames are welcome. However, if you do not own the IP, please do not steal assets from the source material

Use this freedom in the spirit of a simple jam.

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Examples

Looping backgrounds in Yesterday, the World Ended by Ronove


Psychedelic Transforms in (in)finite girl by supercircuit

Camera Perspective in Weltschmerz by tofurocks and co.

No use of sprites in One More Sleep🌙 by PRINCESS INTERNET CAFé

Clever use of the one sprite in Medusa's Mini Mystery by Marionette

Clones of the dancer in just dumb little dances by Vimi

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What is not allowed?

  • submitting partial works e.g. demo, Part 1 of x, etc... Self-contained prologues are okay!
  • submitting unfinished works or placeholder pages for future uploads
  • submitting entries that promote bigotry and hateful conduct, or are otherwise made in bad faith
  • using non-GUI assets (sprite, BG, audio, etc.) from a larger project of yours
  • using illegal assets (pirated/stolen, or you do not have a proper license for)
  • using engines or programming in a manner that would make hybrid games (e.g. a half VN/RPG hybrid that features exploration, due to the assets required to make a functional RPG with an overworld map)

Entries that disregard the rules will be removed from the jam.

Additionally, AI-generated assets are only allowed if you own the training data. (e.g. Photoshop's content-aware fill, training an entirely separate instance of AI on exclusively your work, using ML to remix art with permission from the artist, etc.) Systems in which the training data is not owned by the dev (ChatGPT, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, and similar) are not allowed at this time.

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Okay, but... Is X allowed?

See our FAQ in the Community Boards for more in-depth interpretation of the above rules, including edge cases and previously established limits.

However, we would like to reiterate that the spirit of this jam is to create something minimalist and to use the limitations to spur your creativity. So please do not over-complicate yourself. There is probably a simpler way to make the thing that you want to do within the constraints of the jam.

And most importantly: Don't stress, focus on having fun, and keep in mind the aim of the jam is to create something small, self-contained, and finished.

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What can you do before the jam starts? Where can I find other participants?

The jam follows the "standard" jam protocol. You can:

  • make notes/outlines, jot down ideas, brainstorm
  • make a sketch or two for designs
  • browse and select already existing / Creative Commons assets
  • look for team members

All the mental efforts, working out the logic of your story, calculating time needed and other "preparations for your journey" are fine. Finalized assets or writing that appear in the actual game as a direct result of a team member's effort should not be done before the start.

Join the DevTalk discord for direct support, sharing, and talking to other participants in the "current events" section. You can also use the Community section of this jam page. If you're on Twitter or other social media sites, post using #O2A2VNJam to see what everyone else is up to!

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Disclaimer

This year, we're recommending every game includes some text (either in the splash screen or the game page) indicating your game is an O2A2 VN Jam game and thus was made under some restrictions (the rules of the jam, basically). This is in hopes of preventing low reviews from players who are unaware of the restrictions of the O2A2 Jam rules. This counts as GUI and doesn't affect your wordcount.

Feel free to use this example boilerplate:

This game was made for the O2A2 VN Jam 2023, a micro Visual Novel jam with strict asset limitations and a 1000 word limit.

You may use the promo graphics for the splash screen for this. If so please credit accordingly (see "Credits" below).

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Credits

This year's promotional art and logo was drawn by isla of Milk+ and is licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0. Lemon-chan belongs to the DevTalk community. 

We would like to especially thank Mikey of ATP Projects, the original host of O2A2, for conceptualizing this jam and making it a reality. His work and dedication to the visual novel development community as a whole has invariably shaped the way creators approach their projects.