Hope is a future-oriented perspective. Hope is also a force that binds people, environments, places, and communities together. Hope can be an individual, group, community, or global practice. Most critically, hope is a practice that needs to be tied to action. This jam is about the lasting impact of developing sustainable hope. These are practices which encourage the sustainability of our work and environment, and ourselves as developers and players of games.

For this jam:

1) Practice sustainability in how much you, the designer(s) and producer(s) of the game, work.

2) Consider environmental sustainability in every aspect of game design, production, and distribution.

3) Build in practices which allow your game to have a net positive effect on our natural environment.

4) Center the sustainability of the player(s) and focus on encouraging growth and building energy (spiritual, mental, emotional, physical, etc.)

5) Center hopefulness, creativity, and ambition of the player(s).  Nourish your players!

Rules:

•  All types of games (digital, physical, multiplayer, singleplayer, etc.) are acceptable
• Game must not promote any sort of discrimination (racism, sexism, homophobia, abelism, and so on)
• Games must not uncritically promote harmful systems (e.g. colonialism) 
• Entries requiring an account or sign-up for a third-party or other service(s) will be refused. 
• Avoid game design which saps the energy of players, communities, and designers. Avoid microtransactions, binging, and addictive game design
• If using assets or text that are not your own, or hacking existing games, you must credit the original author
• Old games produced outside the jam time frame are acceptable provided you include a Sustainable Engagement Developer’s Log
• Teams or solo work are acceptable 

Requirements:

• Your submission must include a Developer’s Log outlining your engagement with sustainability. 
• After publishing your game write a Developer Log detailing how you engaged with sustainability for this project. It's okay if not everything is perfect. Detailing your mistakes, near-misses, and problems is just as important as discussing what went right. For example, if you planned to use recycled paper for your print run but then the printer fell through and you had to go with Plan B, talk about that! Or, if you wanted to host your game on sustainably-maintained servers but were unable to do so, talk about that, too! If you tried not to crunch but then ended up working 20 hours on the game in the last day, let us know! And then talk about what you might try to do differently next time. The point isn't to be perfect; it's to practice sustainability. Emphasis on "practice."

• Questions to consider for your developer’s log about sustainable engagement:
  • What does sustainability mean for us?
  • What does hope mean for us?
  • How do we practice hope and sustainability in our game design?
  • How does the production and distribution of this game have a net positive effect on the world?
  • What do we wish for players of our game?
  • How have we considered promoting player hopefulness in our game design?

Optional Theme Prompts:

Your game does not have to be “about” the environment, sustainability, or hope per se. It is more important that the practice of developing, distributing, and playing the game promotes sustainable hope. That said, if you’re looking for some prompt themes and ideas consider the following:

• Sustaining hope in a hard times/situations
• The hopefulness of darkness, blackness, or night
• Energy as a key game mechanic
• Gifting/giving as a key game mechanic
• Something that brings you, the creator, hope
• Subvert a damaging trope
• Laughter and joy as a game mechanic or story element

Optional Color Palette:

Bonus Challenge:

Distribute your game to your community in some way. This could look like playing the game with friends and family, donating keys, donating physical copies of the game, or making zines and distributing them. 

Socials:

Use the hashtag #SustainableHopeJam on Twitter to discuss the jam and share your work.

Join the Lonely Cryptid Media Discord for discussion on the jam and more!

Further Reading:

Media:

No Planet B: A Teen Vogue Guide to the Climate Crisis,

The Fight For the Future: Organizing In and Around the Tech Industry,

The Work of Videogames: Reflections on Game Worker Organizing,

Game Worker Solidarity: Organizing from the Screen to the Table,

List of HopePunk Podcasts by Buzzfeed,

https://www.polygon.com/podcasts/2018/11/23/18106445/best-podcasts-positive-hope... 

Journey O.S.T. by Austin Wintory,

Flower O.S.T. by Vincent Diamante,

Hopeful Vibes Personal Playlist by April Autumn, https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1sElEQa0XFc4CXHjIprawy?si=VluT4HPsTkuw0z3PR5PA... 

Articles:

Noam Chomsky on Anarchism, Marxism & Hope for the Future, http://www.ditext.com/chomsky/may1995.html 

Hopes and Prospects (Amnesty International Lecture) by Noam Chomsky, https://chomsky.info/20091030/ 

Hope in Psychology by Elaine Houston, B.Sc., https://positivepsychology.com/hope-therapy/ 

Books:

Hope Against Hope: Writings on Ecological Crisis, by the Out of the Woods Collective, https://www.akpress.org/hope-against-hope.html

Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities by Rebecca Solnit, https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/791-hope-in-the-dark 

Why We Fight Essays on Fascism, Resistance, and Surviving the Apocalypse by Shane Burley, https://www.akpress.org/why-we-fight.html 

Real Utopia: Participatory Society for the 21st Century edited by Chris Spannos, https://www.akpress.org/realutopiaakpress.html

Prefigurative Politics: Building Tomorrow Today by Paul Raekstad and Sofa Saio Gradin, https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Prefigurative+Politics%3A+Building+Tomorrow+Today-p-... 

Holding Change: The Way of Emergent Strategy Facilitation and Mediation by adrienne maree brown, https://www.akpress.org/holding-change.html