Just want to say it is a great game! You captured the atmosphere really well, and I love the interaction between the characters! The coffee making mini-game is also fantastic!

I facilitated another game of Molotov College recently; this time with Charlie Etheridge-Nunn's The High Priestess playbook in the mix. Our super-powered misfits attempted to avert the apocalypse where demonic forces have eradicated all life on earth!

We had Kendra (she/they) the High Priestess, Alex (she/her) the Empress and Max (they/them) the World. Phantom Wind took Kendra when she was a kid and transformed her body into a demonic shape. She found solace in Molotov College, where she met other super-powered misfits, but the Headmaster used her and her powers. Alex is a blind telepath who can "see" through other people's eyes and has the power to edit memories. The Headmaster once instructed her to use her power on herself, and she can't remember why. Max has the power to manipulate and travel through time but get tired and disoriented afterwards. They went to the future and saw the apocalypse, and suspect Kendra might have something to do with the demonic invasion.

After returning from the future, Max calls for a meeting and tells the other alumni about the apocalypse. They remember seeing a newspaper in the future referencing a sports event, which is going to take place in the coming week! The trio then decides to go to a sleazy bar to look for Kendra's demonic contact.

Kendra threatens the bartender Lucy but then disappears into the Phantom Wind, leaving Max and Alex to deal with the angry demonic bartender. Max rewinds time to do it again, only to make it worse by attracting the attention of the bouncers as well. They manage to fight off one of the demon bouncers, and Lucy has a proposal to the alumni; if they return with souls later, she can provide them the information they need. The duo leaves the bar and are confronted by the Time Knights—protectors of the linear timeline. Donning mediaeval armour and wielding assault rifles, the Time Knights shoot at Max and Alex. 

All of a sudden, the battlefield is covered with smoke and the smell of sulphur, and Kendra comes out of a portal with bits of her clothes on fire. Seeing that her friends are being attacked, she summons hell beasts to tear the Time Knights apart, and holds up her hellsword to absorb the souls of the fallen combatants.

We flashback to the day Molotov College was destroyed. Dr. M gathered the students at the college's gymnasium and asked them to demonstrate their powers. Max went back in time and brought back a live dinosaur egg, impressing Dr. M and other students. When it came to Kendra's turn to display her powers, she failed to open a hell portal on her first try. On behest of Dr. M, Kendra pushed herself beyond her limit and unleashed a fiery demon into the gymnasium, which bit off the head of Dr. M and burnt the school to the ground. The demon eventually left and most of the students survived, but Molotov College and Dr. M were no more.

Back in the present day, the three alumni go back to the demon bar in the evening. Kendra pays Lucy with the souls she has collected earlier, and the bartender directs them to a room in the back. The trio enters the room and sees none other than Dr. M. It turns out that Dr. M absorbed the demon's power on that fateful day, and made Alex edit everyone's memories about the event, including herself. Max wants to believe that there is still some good in Dr. M, but he is too far gone. Perhaps the demon has corrupted him, or maybe he's always been evil. Dr. M has planned for the demonic invasion that would bring about the apocalypse, and he is too strong for the trio to handle! In order to get the power to fight Dr M, Kendra would need to sacrifice her humanity and become a full demon herself. Max however, has another idea.

Max uses their time travel power to bring the alumni back in time, to when Dr M was still a young man. They dissuade Dr M from studying demonology, thus preventing them from merging with a demon. Our alumni have averted the apocalypse and saved the day, or so they think.

When our protagonists travel back to the present, the world is now run by angels. The society is highly structured and ordered, with individuality and creativity snuffed out. This is where we end our session.

Hi BerryArray, thanks for submitting your game!

Would be good if you can have a sentence in the description linking your game to the theme?

Something like "Take a break and do a picross puzzle" would be fine.

They are really cool games and thanks for your interest, but we don't accept already published games for this jam. I wrote the rules of the jam with newly created games in mind. Some other jams I run are for the purpose of showcasing games around a certain theme, but I want to encourage people to make new games with this one.

Hello jammers,

It is halfway through the jam period. How is everyone getting on?

Share your ideas and progress in this thread!

I'll go first. I am currently learning Ink/Inky and writing an interactive fiction with it. Your character is about to be defeated by the big bad, but your witch ally saved you in the last minute by teleporting you into her cosy cottage. You take some time to recover, drink tea, and share some intimate moments, before heading out to finish the fight.

I am slowly getting along, as I keep adding new branches to the story. I should just keep it linear. haha

~Arthur

Thanks for playing and the feedback!

ink is a narrative scripting language for games. It is easy to write an interactive fiction and export it for web.

The official page for ink:  https://www.inklestudios.com/ink/

Inky, the ink editor: https://www.github.com/inkle/inky/releases/latest

Here are some tutorials that I find useful for making games in ink/Inky:

Writing web-based interactive fiction with ink (official tutorial): https://www.inklestudios.com/ink/web-tutorial/

Official manual for ink/Inky: https://github.com/inkle/ink/blob/master/Documentation/WritingWithInk.md

Learn Ink (video game dialogue language) in 15 minutes by Trever Mock (YouTube video): https://youtu.be/KSRpcftVyKg

Teach Me How to Ink by hoverboard (YouTube playlist): https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuSvdAg-FtpxCQ0SN-Da0-55woO_TkB0g

To get Twine, go to: https://twinery.org/

Here are some general tutorials that I find useful for beginning in Twine:

(There are two major "story formats"; Harlowe is the default, while SugarCube has better features)

• Twine Cookbook (the official guide which goes a bit into all story formats): https://twinery.org/cookbook/
• Official documentation for Harlowe 3.3.6: https://twine2.neocities.org/
• Official documentation for SugarCube v2: http://www.motoslave.net/sugarcube/2/docs/
• A Quick Twine (2.2+) Tutorial by Allison Parrish (SugarCube): https://catn.decontextualize.com/twine/
• Creating Interactive Fiction: A Guide to Using Twine by Aidan Doyle (Harlowe): https://www.sfwa.org/creating-interactive-fiction-guide-using-twine/
• How to Create Adventure Games using Twine by CCH Learning (a great video tutorial with Harlowe): https://youtu.be/Fp9Sxiv-O-0
• Twine or Treat by GhazWorks (video series with SugarCube): https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLujRcYYssj76Q_seiXpXnXxzpj1fULa0s
  
• Twine 2 Beginners tutorial series by DigitalExposureTV (video series with Harlowe): https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLklITFhXtPCCKadv-0Gcbqoj3OCev695D
• Kira's general SugarCube tips: https://guides.writtenhorror.com/kiras/
• The Twine® Grimoire, Vol. 1 & 2 by Grim Baccaris (guide and tips for both Harlowe and SugarCube):
  • https://gcbaccaris.itch.io/grimoire-one
  • https://gcbaccaris.itch.io/grimoire-two

To upload your finished Twine project onto itch.io, follow this guide: https://twinery.org/cookbook/starting/twine2/publishing_on_itchio.html

(Thanks Sjoerd Hekking for suggestions!)

1st of August to 31st of August

Campers gathering around a campfire after a day of activity, office workers sharing stories around a water cooler, a student making a hot beverage in between their studies, a knight sharing a tender moment with her companion before facing off the evil dragon. 

The theme of the game jam is Brief Respite. Make a game about taking a short break! The world outside might be stressful and even hostile to your existence, but right now is a moment of rest and calm.

For more info, check out the link to the game jam here.

I thought I had until the end of June, and the whole of the 30th to finish my game, but it actually ends 11am in my time zone. (I had been dealing with very bad jetlag for the past few days, so my time management has been off.)

It would be good if the deadline gets extended. If not, I will upload what I have and update my game afterwards.

Cool, will do!

I saw video games and board games being mentioned on the jam page. I assume tabletop roleplaying games would be fine, but asking just to be sure.

There are a lot of indie TTRPG designers making games with anti-capitalist themes, and many of them would probably in interested in the game jam!

That's some great reviews!

As someone who loves card-based RPGs, Inspiration Arcanum hits the sweet spot for me. I love the incorporation of tarot cards and I am partial to splitting things into three groups.

BELONG is a very neat hack of Belonging Outside Belonging, one of my favourite RPG systems!

An amazing collection of games! I love how wholesome they are! Appraisal is my favourite!

Thank you! :)

That's a fun and cosy game! Keep up the good work!

It is allowed. Collections of 12 word RPGs have been submitted such as https://myfawnwy.itch.io/six-and-two-threes and https://cmartins.itch.io/nanopack.

Great blog! Thanks for sharing! :)

As stated in the FAQ, "Punctuations and simple mathematic symbols are allowed and they don't add to your word count." I would recommend using 3- (three minus), which would count as a single word in the rules.

1-3 would count as two words. As the en-dash/hyphen can be excluded as punctuation/math symbol.

This is a very cool game! Feels like one can use the "celebrity"'s photo from social media (with their consent of course) to make it more scandalous. (Why are they eating a burger?!)

A well written 12-word RPG, and I love the background!

Instruction unclear, got eaten by a bear. (Great game btw! I am referencing the meme.)

Elegantly designed, and a meaningful game about collaborative writing. I especially like the colour-coded diagram that complements the instructions.

Very clever RPG, and I love the use of black and grey!

As long as the rules can be condensed into 12 words, sure!

Impressive work! Beautifully captured cyanotypes and evocative mechanics!

Marvellous! Elegant mechanics and great artwork!

A warm and cosy RPG in 12 words! Great work! 

Thank you very much for the comments! :)

Great collection of micro games and self-care advice! Really love it!

A great narrative game with a mythological theme! Love it!

e.g. Stingray Scimitar, Carp Cutlass, Fangtooth Falchion, Mackerel Machete, Escolar Estoc

Thank you for the kind words! :)

Great game! Really love how you incorporated the folklore theme!

Really love the theme of the game!

Items don't offer a mechanical advantage. The items are mostly for the flavour (Sword Punk needs a sword), and I made the item box bigger so players can write down items they collected.

Thank you very much! :)

I do like BOMISO a lot. The artwork is awesome and I like the use of fudge dice.

Fallen Star is poetic and I really like the bookmark format.

CrazyPokus is a beautifully drawn comic, and I love how easy it is to follow the rules.

It is hard to pick a favourite. haha