What is Polyjamorous?
This jam was created by Flowersforjoy (Joy) myself, as I am so fortunate to be poly myself! I came out earlier this year after having speculated being poly my entire life. There are actually quite a few indie games I’ve played that fall under the umbrella of poly but are impossible (at least for me) to find. So that’s how this jam was born, entirely selfishly (jkjk).
More seriously, I have craved more poly central romance in visual novels for a very long time. I love dating sims for this reason, but being gated to one love interest at a time isn’t as much fun. Or I think to myself while reading a romance story with a love triangle, why can’t the main character have them both?
If any of this was relatable to you then this is your chance to create something to break the status-quo and portrayed default monogamy found in most romance media.
Indie vn’s/games are a place to showcase what the big game companies are too scared to do. Polyamory has been seen as taboo and is severely misunderstood by so many. And the recent up rise of poly hate is very disheartening to say the least... My goal in this jam is to normalize it more in the indie game space and hopefully in general.
(And have lots of wonderful polyamory centric romances to read ❣️)
Polyamory Resources
Must be a positive depiction of polyamory whether it be a polycule or someone with multiple partners in a healthy depiction.
Polyamory sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyamory
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/polyamory
Here are some positive and non positive depictions of what counts as healthy polyamory and what doesn't. (As shown by the hearts).
Rules
-Dating Sims/or games with multiple love interests will work just fine, as long as long as as the love interests aren’t separated into monogamous stories, like a traditional dating sim.
-Primarily narrative focused games, with a heavy focus on romance is the ideal for this jam. Whether that be a platformer, souls like, or visual novel. As long as a polyamorous romance story is at the focus of that game.
-NSFW must be tagged appropriately.
-No commercial Fan projects
-You may work on your projects before the jam starts.
-Since finding Polyamorous games in the indie visual novel space inspired this jam in the first place, feel more than free to resubmit an older project that applies to this jam for visibility!
-Incomplete entries (such as demos, updates, etc...) are very much accepted.
-Make sure to credit on the game page itself all team members, assets, etc...
-No AI- any use of AI will automatically disqualify you. Whether that be in the writing, art, etc...
-No love triangles, cheating, or depictions of monogamous relationships as a central focus will be allowed.
-All characters involved in said polyamory must be of age (18+), your characters must also look 18+. No shota con/lolicon or anything adjacent will be allowed.
-Any entries that portray any sort of discrimination (LGBTQ+-phobia, racism, sexism etc. in a good light will be removed.
Important note:
The project must be romantic in nature, and ideally healthy. Unhealthy depictions of romance are allowed, as long as the unhealthy aspects aren’t tied to themes that harm polyamory such as jealousy, cheating, or being greedy etc… These themes can be presented if you intend to break them within the narrative, but it’s imperative that polyamory itself isn’t what makes the relationship unhealthy.
Yanderes, possessive love, horror romance, and the like are accepted, but will be checked to see if they are harmful to the message the jam intends to protect. If you do happen to make a darker romance game, please tag your content warnings effectively.
If any entry fails to respect the rules your project will be removed.
Examples of visual novels with polyamory in it. What Remains of Us, Seaside Inn, When The Night Comes, Yuki’s Palpitating, Passionate, Phenomenal, and quite frankly proficient quest for a (hot) girlfriend !!! (as well as its sequel!), Silver Shields, Deliver Us From Evil just to name a few!
Any inquiries please reach out to @flowersfourjoy on Twitter, flowersforjoy on Discord, or send an email meanttobeestudios@gmail.com