What is the Underwater Jam?
A two months long jam dedicated solely to all things underwater!
Be it deep sea horrors, fishes, or bacteria living in a puddle down the street. As long as it primarily concerns something existing below the water surface, it counts!
You also get a few buffer days on top of those two months, to account for those times where life inevitably happens.
Rules
- The work must be story focused1, and feature an underwater setting. See the FAQ for specifics.
- Your work should be free at least for a month after the jam ends so everyone who took part can play it2.
- You can start working before the jam starts, or finish older projects. The goal is to have something playable by the time the jam ends.
- Demos, fanworks, and AUs are fine.
- You're free to make the work 18+, but always add the appropriate warnings.
- Projects confirmed to be made using generative AI or stolen assets will be removed. CC assets with credits are fine.
- There are no prizes or rankings3. Everyone who finished their project is a winner.
- Have fun :D
How much water is enough?
Generally the rules are pretty broad and as long as a typical player could, without a doubt, consider your work to either take place mostly underwater or deal with water creatures and so on, it's fine. Octopus tentacle monsters, mermaids, discovering Atlantis, or just chilling deep diving are only some of the examples.
If you have any doubts about your entry, please refer to the FAQ. Or feel free to hit me up [Awiola] on discord/tumblr/the jam forum.
Don't know how to start?
With an idea, of course!
I recommend checking out the FAQ, which expands upon the information below, but in short:
If you're new to visual novel, or otherwise story game development, some of the most common engines would be Ren'Py (made purely for VNs); Unity (with its many templates, like Naninovel); or Twine (perfect for some interactive fiction).
And if you're looking for a team you can always check out the jam community, one of the linked servers/sites, or gather your friends to make something. Or solo dev. Any combination is fine :D
Additional info
DevTalk — while not directly related to the creation nor hosting of this jam, it's a helpful community (on Discord) for visual novel creators that also makes finding group members for future jams easier.
Lemmasoft forums — for your Ren'Py and dev needs if you're not a fan of Discord.
