The Robot Party Game Jam is about making a diverse range of weird games that adhere to a strangely specific theme and ruleset. The scenario and characters were brainstormed with a live audience on Twitch (archived here!) Here is the result:

THEME

We’ve locked down exclusive rights to create a video game based on Steel Love, a long-dead young adult book series that began in 1994. Steel Love is the story of a woman named Singuliera who must deal with the trials and tribulations of falling in love with a giant robot, Gigantimus. The series ranked in the top 20 in its category for 8 years, until, in the 11th book, the author revealed a wildly unpopular twist: the giant robot was actually being piloted by a smaller human-sized robot, named Averagmus. The fanbase was universally furious and repulsed by this single reveal, which prompted the publisher to abruptly cancel the series. The author hasn’t worked since.

This author sold us the gaming rights to Steel Love for dirt cheap, but with a single condition: we cannot undo the wildly unpopular twist. It happened, and nothing can change that. There are simply no giant robots in the Steel Love world. However, we have a plan. Our game will pick up after the series ended. That allows us, in a blatant attempt to win fans back, to revive one of the series' beloved Dead Characters to be the star of our video game. Here are the 8 Dead Characters from the Steel Love series:
(Note: These are general depictions. You can go nuts with your interpretations.)

Jebb O’Shenny - a war-weary bounty hunter who attempts to destroy our protagonists' undying love but it’s only because he longs for their combined love. Dies in Book 2 (but not really) and Book 9 (with certainty).

Mrs. Freida - a tailor who was able to create clothes for Gigantimus, but never approved of their relationship. Dies in Book 8.

Charlene Chibs - a young girl who views Gigantimus as a hero and follows it everywhere but she gets squished. Dies in Book 11.

Ziv Chromebeak - a mysterious assassin who hunted and killed Gigantimus’s creator but was really his brother. Dies in Book 9.


Damian - a childhood best friend who can rewind time but uses this power to try to earn Singuliera’s heart. He has a milky green eye that fades each time he tempers with time. Dies in Book 9.


Sumiv Warring - a childhood friend who nearly scientifically proves that other giant robots exist, but dies from a fall mid-search when the Robot Finding Goggles run out of batteries. Dies in Book 9.


Aldious Ripley - an old man who built robots, but didn’t know they were illegal lovebots. Confirming again, he did not know what people were using his robots for. Dies in Book 6.


Trik - a Grazaloid who does maintenance on robots, but is secretly part of an underground organization that sells black market parts. They die after the empire does a raid on their secret part warehouse in Book 7.

*Thanks to LittleKittenBit for coloring these 

RULES

- Your game must take place in the Steel Love timeline, afterthe wildly unpopular twist. It can be in any genre, and must be playable on Windows.

- No copyrighted material - this includes assets, music or characters from other properties. If you do choose to license music and sound effects, please choose something that won't get flagged on YouTube/Twitch.

- The game shouldn’t take longer than 40 minutes to finish.

- You must choose to revive one of the 8 Dead Characters to become the star of your game, to bring the fans back.   
        - There is no requirement that the Revived Character must be controlled by the player.
        - You may choose to revive other Dead Characters.

- The Revived Character must reveal that they have acquired a Cool New Ability in the time they spent away.

- The Revived Character must at some point utter, “Everything’s gonna be alright, forever.”

- You must not retcon the wildly unpopular twist. There are No Giant Robots in the Steel Love universe.

- There must be an optional boss fight against Dark Schippie Dues, the multidimensional heel. Little is known about Dark Schippie Dues, but we know for certain he did lose a dungeon last year in an instance of violent mutiny. Dark Schippie Dues must escape at the end of the fight; he cannot die yet. This was his last-seen appearance:


JUDGING

There will be open judging here on itch.io. The judges will grade games in three categories with a score from 1-5. The categories are: 

Franchise Revitalization - How much we’re looking forward to the future of Steel Love with our Revived Character, and how much we don’t even care about the wildly unpopular twist anymore

Sticking to the Rules - How well the game abides by both the important and seemingly trivial rules

Actually Fun - Acknowledging all of the constraints, how much fun is at the heart of this game

There will be five weeks to complete the games. I (hi Kyle Bosman here) will stream each of the entrants on Saturday, June 4th on twitch.tv/KyleBosman, adding an additional day if necessary. Judging will close four days after this stream. 

The winning entry to this Game Jam will be the only one considered official canon.

DISCORD

If you're looking to collaborate on a project or just chat about the game jam, there's a dedicated channel on the Robot Party discord server here:
https://discord.gg/J2Sm4N5Q8N