Message to the Public

Welcome to the Philosophy Game Jam! Judging is open to the public, so feel free to play the games and give them ratings. If you've never participated in a game jam before, just remember that all of these games were made in a week. Try to keep that in mind as you construct constructive feedback. If you are new to itch.io, I advise you to use the itch.io desktop app to download and play games. It makes managing them a little easier.

Jam Goal

The goal of this jam is to produce games that are philosophical in nature. This can mean games that touch on philosophical themes or games that strive to teach the player philosophy.

Judging

Judging will  be done by the public. This is for two reasons. First, it increases the chances that everyone gets enough feedback. Second, it will help to generate publicity for future iterations of the game jam.

Each game will be judged on 5 criteria.

• Philosophy
  • How well does the game incorporate philosophy? Is it a central element of the game?
• Engaging
  • Did the game draw you in? A game can be engaging because it is fun or enjoyable or instead because it is unpleasant in just the right kind of way. This criterion is not labeled as "fun" because a philosophy game may aim to be unpleasant as part of its philosophical lesson.
• Graphics
  • How well do the game's graphics support the game?
• Sound
  • How well do the game's sound track and sfx support the game?
• Cohesion
• How well do all of the parts come together to make the game a cohesive piece of art

Social Media

There is a discord server available for chatting with other participants and finding others to work with. The link is: PhilosophyGameJam Discord Server.

There is also a hashtag for the jam, so make sure to tweet with #PhilosophyGameJam and follow @philgamejam.

Rules

1. You may use assets that were created outside of the jam time
1. For any assets you do use, you must have the right to use it
2. Games should be philosophical, but they need not be within any particular subdiscipline
3. Your game must be freely available during the judging period
4. Games should be made during the jam time
1. The fun of a game jam is rushing to make a game alongside everyone else
2. This rule is mostly just a suggestion to make the jam more fun
5. Teams are allowed

Prizes

There are no monetary or game prizes this time, but I will be building a webpage (PhilGames) to help philosophy instructors find games to use in their classes. The best games from this jam will be featured there. 

What counts as a philosophical game?

• Games that actively teach either the methodology of philosophy or facts about philosophical theories or philosophers
• Games that explore philosophical themes
  • For example, a game that explores questions about person-hood through narrative elements involving androids (think Synths from Fallout 4)
  • A game that explores the possibility of time travel by placing the player in a position to kill their own grandfather