Are you just starting out with game development or are you 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!

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

Theme: For this game jam, you will have to select one of three Themes.

You need to incorporate your chosen Theme into your game in some way and before you submit it, you will need to write atleast 1 short sentence about how your game fits your chosen Theme. It's completely up to you how you interpret the theme. Feel free to be creative with it.

Bonus Challenges: Unlike the Theme, these are entirely optional. Feel free to do one, two, all of them or ignore them completely. Each Theme has three bonus challenges associated with it.

Theme 1: Theatre of the Grotesque

Bonus Challenges:

1 - Body Horror: The game focuses on body horror.

2 - Stick to the Script: There's a puzzle in the game where the player is supposed to reenact a scene in a play according to a script.

3 - Animal Masks: The game features figures wearing animal masks.

Theme 2: Song of the Sea

Bonus Challenges:

1 - The High Seas: The game includes sailing and/or swimming as a game mechanic and is primarily set at and around sea, small islands, coastal areas, aboard ships, underwater etc.

2 - Watery Grave: The player character can drown in the game and/or be killed by some kind of sea monster (be it as a part of a non-standard game over or otherwise).

3 - Sapphire Bracelet: A sapphire bracelet is a significant item in the game.

Theme 3: Dark Streets

Bonus Challenges:

1 - Urban Horror: The game takes place in some urban area, for example within a big city or a large town.

2 - Serve And Protect: The protagonist is a police officer or a detective.

3 - Chains That Bind You: There's a part in the game where the protagonist has to escape from some kind of restraints (being tied to a chair, handcuffed etc.)

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, 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.
• There has to be some kind of free version of your game made available for the duration of the both this game jam's submission period and also its rating period, be it a free demo version or the game itself being free for a limited time. This requirement no longer applies after the game jam ends.
  
• 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:

1. Try to include a Browser version of your game if you can. 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.
2. If you use Unreal Engine to make your game and it's not a VR game, make sure to uncheck the "Start in VR" option in project settings, just so that it doesn't Steam VR when people try to play your game.
3. If you wish to create a game with an optional VR mode in Unreal Engine, you should either include  an option in the Game Settings to turn VR mode on, or include two separate versions for download, one with VR enabled and one with it disabled.
4. If you use an old version of RPG Maker to create your game, make sure it's playable without needing the RTP package to be installed.

Art by: Broody Gaming