Hosted by Nooh Alavi, lenscas, jellybeans_2591 and Hammy

Jam Thumbnail made by spoon

You must create everything within the time frame. Working in teams is allowed, just make sure you credit your teammates!

You are free to use ANY TOOLS you want to create your game, but you must follow the restrictions.

THEME: DEATH IS NOT THE END

LIMITATIONS

• Limited colour palette: You are limited to any 16 colours. 
• Sprites: Max sprite size is 32x32. You can create sprite sheets as long as they meet size restrictions. You may not have more than 256 sprites. Tiles count as sprites, but text does not. 
• You can make 3d games, using 2D sprites, or low-poly models. All textures must also meet the sprite size restrictions.
• Input: The game is limited to 8 buttons. However, if you are adding controller support, and a button on the controller corresponds to a button on the keyboard, then they both count as one button. Mouse buttons count as buttons. 
• Screen resolution: You can pick any screen res. The max size is 320x320 pixels. Fullscreen buttons are allowed.
• Post processing and particles are allowed
• There's no restrictions on sound or music, but it'll be better if you make it sound like its from a 80s console
• Controller support would be cool. Just make sure that there is also keyboard + mouse support for those people who don't have controllers.
• You can use any tools you want, but I recommend PICO-8, TIC-80, or Pixel Vision 8.
• Export your game to as many platforms as possible. This will allow more people to play and review your game! Windows, Mac and Linux are fine, but you can also export to HTML and cover all of those, plus Chrome OS!
• OPEN SOURCE (optional): It would be cool if you could open source your game and add a link to the source code (preferably GitHub). This is optional, but recommended. Not only will this allow us to make sure you followed all the rules, but it could help others learn!

ANY INAPPROPRIATE OR SPAM ENTRIES WILL BE REMOVED

SOME SCREEN SIZE SUGGESTIONS

SOME COLOUR PALETTE IDEAS

The games will be ranked based on:

1. Graphics
2. Audio
3. Gameplay
4. How 8-bit/retro it is
5. How well it suits the theme
6. How creative it is

But hey, don't stress about the ranking - the goal is to HAVE FUN.

Q&A:

• Q: Am I allowed Full screen buttons, because 320x320 is tiny?
  • A: As long as you keep the ratio and don't add new detail, yes. Adding black bars is also allowed for scaling game up while keeping ratio.
• Q: Since sprites are limited, can I fit multiple sprites into one 32x32 sprite?
  
  • A: Yes, you can - just make sure you don't pass size restrictions.
• Q: Can I make a 3d game?
  
  • A: Yes, you can. Low poly is recommended, and the textures have to be max 32x32.
    
• Q: Is it possible to combine sprites to make a larger one, say combining 2 sprites to make 1 32 * 64 one?
  • A: Yes, old games often did this trick while rendering the game to get larger sprites at the cost of needing more.
    You are allowed to do this while creating the sprite rather than have the game render them separately as there is no way for us to check. If you want to do this, keep in mind that you can only do it in multiples of 32*32 AND that every time you increase it will mean your sprite count goes up (Remember, you have a max of 256 sprites)
    For example, a 32*64 sprite takes up 2 out of the 256 max and a 64*64 takes up 4.
• Q: What about resizing?
  • A: sprite is allowed to be resized for as long as it doesn't add any new detail.
    If you have a sprite file that is 32*32 and want to use it to cover the entire screen then you can and it will still only take up 1 sprite slot.
    However, the moment you add more detail to this sprite it will count as combining sprites. Look at the question above for more information on that.
• Q: Can I reuse a sprite by only changing the colour? Like the bush and cloud in Mario bros 1.
  • A: Yes, for as long as the colour is the only thing that is changed is the colour it still counts as using 1 sprite. Although there is no way for us to check if you let the game do the recolouring or do it manually while drawing we highly suggest to do it at run time. If you don't and you make changes to a sprite you may forget to apply these changes to every version, which would result in you using more sprites than intended.
• Q: And text?
  • A: Text only rarely took up sprite space in retro consoles. Because of this text doesn't add to the sprite count.
• Q: Am I allowed to use a custom font that uses custom pictures for certain characters? This is a trick that some old games did to either get "sprite" support on a console that didn't have it or add more.
  • A: No. There are now more characters then there used to be and swapping out fonts also became a lot easier and thus this trick would circumvent the max sprite allowance without much new challenges. Additionally, there is no way for anyone else to check if this trick was actually used.
• Q: I used 1 or more of the allowed tricks. Do I have to mention this somewhere?
  • A: Though you don't have to mention it, it may be smart to do so to prevent confusion about whether or not the rules where followed.
• Q: I know of this awesome other trick that old consoles used to get around a limitation. Can I use it?
  • A: Ask one of us and we will discuss it. Join the discord server below to contact us.
• Q: What about using a solid color for the background? Does that count as a sprite?
  • A: No, it does not
• Q: Do primitive shapes like rectangles or lines count as sprites?
  • A: Only if they represent playable elements, and not background, transitions, buttons, etc.

Join this Discord server for updates and to contact us: https://discord.gg/sPJJHNR