Note: Please look over the Rules and the Ratings sections before joining the jam. Also be sure to look over the Q&A section as well before asking any questions.
Hello, and welcome to the StraightUp GameJam Musical Edition! This is a biannual Game Jam that is here to foster creative game ideas through a supportive community.
The jam will be in a Ranked Jam format, to emphasize giving other game developers feedback. It is a way for this amazing game dev community to come together, make games, and share them with others, through a unique musical theme limitation, and an additional game mechanic flavor. Join this jam if you are itching to create a game through musical inspiration, and with the challenge of implementing a last minute mechanic to your game!
There are two ways in which you can use this song as inspiration for your game.
1. You can create a game that actually utilizes the song as the main gameplay track. Make sure that your game fits to the mood and feel of the song if you decide to use the track itself. Feel free to expand upon the song as well and add your own elements to it. Just don't actually alter the starting track in anyway if you decide to utilize it. The download will be available on my Discord under the announcements section!
2. If you want to write your own music, you can use the song thematically, and create gameplay and mechanics that fit the theme of the song. Listen to the music and figure out what emotions, moods, and feelings you get from it, and find a way implement these elements into your game along with your own music you write.
The flavor is an additional mechanic that will be announced half way through the jam, after you have put a significant amount of progress into your game. The intention is to require jammers to implement that mechanic into their existing idea, and to challenge them to make that mechanic feel like it was a part of the original concept that was built around the theme.
This flavor will be REQUIRED for participants to implement into their game. It will also include it's own Rating section at the end of the competition. So please, try your best to implement the flavor. It's part of the challenge of this jam!
Note: If you join the jam after the flavor has been announced, try implementing the flavor at the half-way point from when you sign up and when the jam ends. I understand that that can be challenging, but it makes the experience more interesting. Then after you have a base for your game's prototype after, work in the flavor!
1. No NSFW games or material will be allowed or tolerated in this jam. You will be blacklisted from future jams if you submit NSFW content.
2. Due to the openness of this Musical Theme, I have no way of determining if a game fits the Theme or not. The theme is technically required for this jam, but if you choose not to implement the song directly in your game, be prepared to properly describe how you interpreted the song into game mechanics in your submission.
3. Please provide a web build for your game at the end of the jam, so it is safer for everybody to play each other's games. I will only playtest games that have a web build on my playtest stream at the end of the jam. If you can't get a web build to work and you are a frequent member of my streams or Discord server, please send a message on the community tab of the jam or through our Discord server to get cleared for a Windows build. I will only play Windows builds on my stream if they get cleared ahead of time. No Exceptions!
4. When using the community tab or the discord channel to create a team or discuss the jam, be kind, curious, and respectful when responding to others.
5. Due to the emphasis on feedback in this jam, you must play and rate as many submissions as you are able to during the jam. This will be elaborated more in the Ratings section below.
6. Premade utility code is allowed for the jam, but not premade audio and visual assets. If you make your own assets, make them during the jam. If you are using assets from another source, find them during the jam duration. The mechanics, story, and/or core idea should be developed during the duration of the jam.
7. Do not submit a game that was created before the jam has started. Your game must be designed around the theme and flavor. Don't submit a game that conveniently fits the theme and flavor if it was made before the jam.
This jam is ranked for the sole purpose of encouraging those participating to play and rate other peoples games. Feedback is a super important thing in game development, so I would like to stress that in order to be ranked, you must play at least one other game from the jam. However, it is encouraged to play as many games from the submissions as possible. (Don't expect feedback unless you give it to others.)
The jam will be rated by five elements of criteria!
Theme: How well does the game use the jam's theme? (If not used, automatic 1 star)
Flavor: How well was the flavor integrated into the game and did it mesh well with the theme? (If not used, automatic 1 star)
Game Design: How fun and intriguing was the game's design and mechanics?
Audio: How well produced was the SFX and music if it was produced by the developer? (If no Music or SFX, automatic 1 star)
Visuals: How visually pleasing and smooth are the visuals and animation? (If borrowed elsewhere, 3 star max score)
Creativity: How creative and outside of the box was the game's audio, visual, or design aspects? (This is not interpretation of theme. This is how creative the game was in general, and the creativity behind the sound, visual, and design components)
The point of this jam is not to create a fully polished game. The goal is to have a fun time producing a really solid game concept in a short amount of time. If you find any bugs for a game, let the developer know as constructive feedback under their games jam page! Many people are aware of bugs when they submit a jam game, but some might have been unknown. Treat every game submission as if the dev plans to continue to work on the game!
Q: Is there a limit to team sizes?
A: No, there is no limit to the size of teams for this jam. You can have as many people as you want for this jam!
Q: Am I allowed to submit a game that I created for another jam?
A: The short answer, No. This jam does not allow for games that are submitted to multiple jams. However, if you are able to work in the Theme and Flavor, and you only work on the game during the period of this jam, Yes, you could submit your game to multiple jams. However, DO NOT submit a game that was finished before the jam runs.
Q: Can I use code, assets, music, and SFX that I created before the jam?
A: For code, yes you can use things that were created before the jam period if it's utility based scripts and code pieces. For example, basic player movement, pause menu scripting, full screen functionality, things of that nature, but no full on mechanics can be used. For art and sound assets, you must create those or find assets to use during the period of the jam.
Q: Can I use premade assets, music, and sound from assets stores and other people?
A: Yes you can, but know that using external assets instead of creating your own might effect your score, as using premade assets effects the maximum score that you can get for some rating categories.
Q: Will you be playing and giving feedback on the jam submissions?
A: If there are under 10 submissions, I generally will play through all of the jam submissions in one stream on my Twitch stream during the rating period. You can find the link to my Twitch at the bottom of the page. If there are more than 10 submissions, I will either find a way to split them up to multiple days of streaming, or will play through a couple that catch my eye at the very least, and get some help to play and rate the other game submissions!
While this is the first ever Musical Edition of the StraightUpGameJam, it's not the first ever that I've hosted! If you'd like to check out our previous jams, you can here!
StraightUpGameJam#1 | StraightUpGameJam#2
If you are interested in joining the discord server to receive announcements about the jam, team up with others, or just to join my community the link will be below. Also, if you are interested in checking out anything I do, all of my links will be listed below.
Discord: https://discord.gg/ht4ZWQzbG7
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/straightupgruntled
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GruntledGames
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIzce-d35l1aVbZpD