It was a very debated thing, and yes, it was immediately disqualified at first.
This is a lax jam in terms of start time and content reuse so there’s very little we have to determine if a game was even made for the jam or not, or if it’s someone just submitting any old project and not caring about the jam theme.
Unfortunately, we’ve received dozens of such entries and had we not had some enforcement you would now be seeing a flood of low quality, irrelevant entries burying the hard work of people who actually did make something for the jam.
This game was ultimately allowed back in because it was very clear that it was made for the jam, was a product of significant effort, a responsive author, and had positive feedback from those who had already played it.
We are trying our best to be as fair and evenhanded as possible while preserving the integrity of the jam.
If anyone feels their game was unfairly excluded they have been invited to come discuss it with us, and in doing so we would be strongly inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt.
So far, no one has