My understanding is that for most game jams (including this one?) the theme is a solution to writer's block--something to help you come up with an idea for a game if you don't have anything yet.
I already knew (vaguely) what I wanted to make for this event, so I didn't really see any value in following the theme. So, my game probably doesn't fit the theme at all!
Thanks for playing!
Having participated in 10 jams, I'd say unless the jam specifically points to the theme as optional, it is the entire point of the jam (other than the time limit).
It is a prompt to be responded to. It gives cohesion to what would otherwise be a bunch of random games, challenges developers to get outside their comfort zone, and provides the primary source of competition among devs to craft the most clever interpretation of the theme in so little time.
Nonetheless, it's still a great achievement to finish a game during the period!
Hmm. Having participated in 34 jams, I think if a jam wanted the theme to be a central point, they would say so. I didn't even realize this jam had a theme until someone else pointed it out to me--it simply was not at all obvious on the jam page. (You might say--how could I miss it? And the answer is I didn't notice the tiny text "THEME" at the top, I was distracted by the huge theme image which I thought was just a funny graphic with no particular significance).
Like, take the Godot Wild Jam for example--they simply say the theme is required. So if a jam wants the theme to be required, they would say so! It takes only four words: "The theme is required." I even checked this on the jam page specifically before committing to working on my project for the jam. And even then, if the theme was required for this jam, I would probably have done one of the following two things:
1. Simply not submitted, which seems like a loss for everyone. There was no way I was going to make anything besides this specific project during that weekend. Even if my game is silly, I think I still contribute to the jam in ways such as leaving comments on people's games. I also think that the very act of making something within the same timeframe as other people is a pretty worthwhile effort on its own.
2. Submitted anyway, and made up a tenuous connection to the theme. I think this is the better option. But then the question becomes why we're doing this song and dance where I make up a connection at all. Who is my nonsense theme connection for anyway?
And so, as a result of both of these options seeming kind of unnecessarily obtuse, I tend to just not actually worry too much about following the theme. What is actually the point of caring about this, you know? What does it do for anyone?
And my attitude is partially because when I do put in real effort to use the theme, people often still comment that they don't see the relationship my game has to the theme--because it's very easy to be inspired by a theme to create something that has no direct connection! That's what brainstorming is all about! In these cases I can always explain exactly how the theme lead to my idea, but apparently that's not sufficient...?
I've also seem jam hosts get confused by some jammers focusing way more on forcing a connection to an optional theme than on making something they actually wanted to make. I kinda think there must be some like, widespread belief that the theme is suuuuuuper important to jams, that overrides people's ability to ignore even an explicitly stated to be optional theme, and I think that's just overall kind of harmful to game jams. I would much rather see stuff that people really wanted to make, in any game jam I participate in, than stuff that definitely relates to the theme, and it's even worse to see people so focused on following the theme that they don't even take the time to realize that it's optional. And so I tend to try to push the opposite view--rather than being too concerned about an optional theme, as some jammers can be, I want to intentionally be cavalier about less-optional themes, to help maybe push the general culture of jams less towards being so focused on themes, at least a little bit.
Now obviously game jam rules are important. I don't think it makes any sense to submit a photorealistic 3D game to a pixel art jam. But specifically themes are already so vague and abstract, and can be so tenuously related to games, that I don't think enforcing a theme even really makes sense in the first place. This, combined with what I see as a culture around game jam themes that is more harmful to creativity than helpful, and I find that overall I will always just make whatever I want to for a game jam, regardless of how it relates to the theme. If I can submit a game that seems to explicitly disregard a rule relating to a theme, I honestly kind of consider that a good thing. I want to see what happens, you know? Jams are always free to disqualify my entries! But they never have.
And, I think that's because fundamentally: if you made a good faith effort at a project for a game jam, of course that jam doesn't want to disqualify it! They want people to make cool stuff for their jam, and rules are squishy. And so making cool stuff is really all I ever set out to do.
