Invitation

We hereby announce PunyJam #1. Anyone can enter. We’re all in it for the fun, and the focus is on learning, sharing and creating. There will also be a competition element to it, but you can choose whether you want your game to be judged and voted on or not.

What it is

A jam where you write a text adventure using the PunyInform library. If you haven't heard of PunyInform before, the fastest way to get started is probably by reading the articles and tutorials which are linked on the PunyInform page.

Games are in Z-code format, playable with any Z-code interpreter, like Gargoyle, Zoom or Ozmoo.

Results

Schedule

9 April: The theme is announced

2 May: Last day to submit games

3-17 May: Voting

18 May: Winners are announced

All times are CET (GMT + 2).

Voting

Anyone can be a judge. Authors are not allowed to vote on their own games. Voting is done using the form at https://forms.gle/DbgjodNu3agH9Nom9 . A judge can vote on any number of games.

At the end of 17 May, CET, voting ends.

Rules

• The game must be free to play.
• The game must be new.
• The game must use the PunyInform library.
• The game must be in English.
• The game content must adhere to the rules added by the theme announcement.
• The game may not contain any copyrighted material that you don't have the rights to use.
• Authors may share their source code or compiled versions of their game with other people during the entire jam. They may not publish compiled versions of the game publicly before voting starts.
• Entrants must be respectful to the jam organizers, other participants, people voting and discussing the games etc.
• No hateful, racist, misogynist or homophobic content, or any content that’s meant to make any group of people feel bad about themselves. 
• The jam organizers reserve the right to remove a game from the jam or require the author to remove certain content.
• Judges will be asked to rate the overall enjoyment they got out of the game. This determines the final ranking.
• An author can choose to submit a game to the jam but outside the competition, meaning it won’t be possible to vote on that entry.
• Authors can be judges, but can’t vote on their own game.
• The jam organizers may enter their own games in the jam, but not in the competition.

Theme

The name of the initial room is Broom Closet.

The description of the room, when the game starts, is:

You’re in the rather dirty broom closet of The Red Anchor. Various cleaning appliances line the walls. There’s a pile of fabric in a corner.

A note has been fixed to the wall with a knife.

The pub lies beyond the closed door to the east.

For more details and a code skeleton to help you get started, see the theme announcement in the community forum.

Recommendations

We strongly encourage authors to:

• aim to make a game that's small, complete and reasonably well tested 
• cooperate, share code, help eachother out with design, programming, testing etc
• publish their source code so others can see how everything is done

Resources

Intfiction.org has a lively forum with lots of skilled and helpful people. We (the organizers of the jam and creators of PunyInform) also hang out there and will try to help answer any questions you may have, technical or otherwise. For any questions related to PunyInform (how does *this* work, how do I achieve *this* effect, is this a bug etc) post in the "Inform 6" category and add the tag "punyinform": https://intfiction.org/c/authoring/inform-6/66

There is also a PunyInform Discord server you can join at https://discord.com/invite/y9anzKJTBa . Several jam participants hang out there.

If you'd like to find someone to cooperate with on writing a game, or you're looking for beta-testers, we suggest you post in this thread over at intfiction.org : https://intfiction.org/t/punyjam-1-requests-for-cooperation-and-testers/50283

The PunyInform page has links to  articles and tutorials. as well as the manual for PunyInform.

Prizes

We currently have these prize to hand out:

* A retail (physical) copy of Curse of Rabenstein for the platform of your choice, including shipping (Warm thanks to PolyPlay / Puddle / Stefan Vogt!)

* A custom 15x15 crossword puzzle, with a theme based on the game of the prize winner. Kindly donated and constructed by M. Nite Chamberlain.

We welcome further donations for this purpose. Please email punyjam.prize.donations@microheaven.com if you want to donate.

The prizes aren't the main thing here, but we're glad we can offer something.

Organizers

The organizers of this jam are Fredrik Ramsberg and Johan Berntsson.