Are you just starting out with game development or already an experienced game developer? Do you want to create a horror game? Are you looking for a game jam to motivate you to finally finish something? Are you willing to follow a certain theme, in order to find inspiration and maybe try something else you wouldn't normally consider? Whether you plan to make a serious, dark horror masterpiece or a B-movie style game about typical horror movie protagonists going into spooky places where no sane man would ever dare to tread, this game jam is for you! Hopefully, at the end of the game jam you will have something playable you can be proud of!

Theme: Haunting Melody

Bonus Challenges: Unlike the Theme, these are entirely optional. Feel free to do one, two, all of them or ignore them completely.

For this game jam, the optional challenges are the following three:

1 - Phantom Threat: The game includes some kind of a danger that is not show outright the majority of the time. The most the player can perceive of it are small glimpses and hints as to its presence or that it's approaching (for example: a shadowy outline, sounds of footsteps, windows creaking, music announcing its presence etc.) If the player can clearly see it, then it's far too late to do anything about it.

2 - Spectral Musician: The game includes a scene where some kind of musical instrument starts playing seemingly on its own.

3 - Sound of Music: Music is tied to game mechanics somehow (for example: Music ramps up when the enemy is near, music signals when an area is safe and when it's dangerous, the player has to stop moving when a certain part of the music track starts playing, the player needs to move to the rhythm of the music, the gameplay involves playing a musical instrument etc.)

Discord: Here's the link to the Discord server!

Rules:

- You can only start working on the actual game project after the submission period starts, but you can start planning and creating/gathering assets and other resources before that time.

- There's no restriction on the Engine, Libraries or Framework you can use to develop your game. Feel free to use Godot, Unity, Unreal Engine, Game Maker Studio, Construct, Pixel Game Maker, Adventure Game Studio, RPG Maker or anything else you want.

- Your game must be a horror game, or atleast have horror elements. It doesn't have to be outright scary, so long as it can even remotely be considered one.

- You can use premade assets, so long as you have the rights/license to use them, abide by their Terms of Use and give credit.

- Your game must incorporate the Theme in some way.

- Abide by itch.io's Terms of Service.

- Provide content warnings for your game if needed. This includes marking the game as Adult Content if it's necessary.

- Suggestions: Try to include a Browser version of your game if you can. It's not a requirement and you don't have to do so, but you will get a lot more people to play your game if it can be played in a browser.