👀

Hello everyone!

Thank you so much for participating in Winter MelonJam 2024! Here are the winners:

Novice

Winners: 

🥇 Space AND Magnets
🥈 Bipolar Polar Bear
🥉  All's Fair In Tug of War

Honorable Mention: 

• Magnetbound
• Divide By Zero
• Polarity Pockets
• Affectus
• Up is Down
• My Friend The Creature
• Magnet Arena
• Ice Firing

Judges' Choice:

• Block Balance
• Electrodynamics
• Mayhem of Molecules
• BeamLight
• Research
• Switch
• Homing
• Dimtensity
• Lab Rat
• APOLLE

Intermediate

Winners:
🥇 Polasta
🥈 Polar Skies
🥉  Corruption's Edge

Honorable Mention:

• Zig-Z.A.G.
• Yoyo to the Core
• UFO: Unidentified and Furry-Obsessed
• Rock Paper Shoot-Out!
• Planet Breaker
• My Sketchbook
• MAGNET BOY BOSS RUSH
• Magnet Dino
• Magnescapists

Advanced

Winners:

🥇 Frozen Garden
🥈 Meloneutral Bandit
🥉  Dermimi's!

Honorable Mention:

• The Grabby Force
• Boss . vs . Rival
• Painting Polarity
• Formulate
• Helmeteers
• The Wishing Star

Feedback

If you won, please have your contact (whoever's contact information was written on the sheet) check for an extra channel under the Winners category in our discord, then ping the rest of the team members inside the channel so we can add everyone. If you had written an email for your contact information, we will be emailing you shortly. Thank you all so much for participating in Winter MelonJam 2024! We (hosts and judges) had so much fun playing everyone's games and have given all playable games some feedback which you can view here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Zygkd1CMqzkJkTN2lEUyGeIgqTLe11QPHcum8KUPoic/edit?gid=1758086780#gid=1758086780

Note: Only top 3 of each category gets prizes, and the Honorable Mention and Judges' Choice games in this announcement are not sorted in any particular order.

Hello everyone!

Just a quick clarification: The winners will not be picked from the player ratings, rather we have a large team of judging currently deciding the winners, which will be announced on January 13th. The ratings are just for funzies as last year we saw large scale vote bombing :(

Hello everyone!

Thank you all for making Winter MelonJam 2024 a success and filling out the feedback form! Here are the winners to the raffle 🥳 (specifically their discord uuids) :

Aesprite key: 994101596604608512

Kenney Asset Forge key/Kenney Game Assets All-in-1 key: 675789411329376287

 ArmorPaint key:  512242503882244117

All the winners are in our discord, so please check if you have won there :)

If you won anything, please open a ticket in the contact-hosts channel in our discord . If you do not open a ticket by January 13th at 5 PM UTC, your raffle prize will be rerolled to someone else. 

Note: This is only the winners for the raffle prize, not for overall winners, those will be announced in a week :)

Hey all!

Thank you all so much for participating in Winter MelonJam 2024! Remember to fill out the mandatory feedback form at https://tinyurl.com/wmj24feedback by January 5th in order to qualify for raffle prizes. Raffle winners will likely be announced January 6th, 2024!

Please take some time to play through some of the games submitted by other participants, rate them, and leave comments!

In addition, we are adding 20 minutes to the itch timer as a grace period. Use this time to finish building your games, completing the submission form, and submitting the game. 

If you submit  after the grace period, open a ticket in ⁠#contact-hosts on the discord and we'll give you a late submission link. As a reminder of our late policy, if you still want to be eligible for prizes, you'll need proof that your build started before the end of the grace period, and send your game's Itch link. If you are ok with forfeiting prizes, you can still submit your game and be eligible to get feedback ~3 hours after the grace period ends (3 is tentative, just however long it takes the hosts to compile submissions for judging). Be sure to let a host know when you submit so we don't forget to include your game.

The winners in all our categories will be announced on January 13th, so stay tuned! And check out #prize-claiming if you haven't already, there's many prizes that you can still claim and use after the jam!

Best,

Winter MelonJam 2024 Host Team

Hey Everyone!

Winter MelonJam 2024 has now begun! The theme is POLARITY. Here’s some definitions:

1. the quality or condition inherent in a body that exhibits opposite properties or powers in opposite parts or directions or that exhibits contrasted properties or powers in contrasted parts or directions : the condition of having poles
2. attraction toward a particular object or in a specific direction
3. diametrical opposition
4. the state of having two opposite or contradictory tendencies, opinions, or aspects.

More ideas here (be warned, not all will work for games): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarity

Tips!

• Use multiple/uncommon definitions if it makes sense for your game, check that the game can’t be easily reskinned to fit a different theme (i.e. the association with the theme is not just surface level).
• What are some things besides magnets that have "polarity"?
• What are some things that are "polar" opposites of each other?
• What are some mechanics you can create with the attraction/repulsion related to "polarity"? 
• What are some physics concepts that could relate to polarity? 

REMINDER: you must keep a document of all outside/pre-made assets used. 

In addition the theme will be on the jam page, announced in our discord, so don't worry if you miss the livestream. 

The time on Itch is when the jam is starting.  On my end it looks like the livestream is starting 15 minutes before the jam (for PST, livestream starts 8:45 AM and jam starts 9 AM which is the time shown on the Itch page), maybe another host updated the time to be correct in the time? You may want to check again and see if the time is correct now. The theme is revealed at the end of the livestream so a few minutes before the jam.

1. You can make assets before the jam starts, but you are required to disclose which assets were premade before the jam in a doc you will submit. Unless the entire game is pre-made assets/other people's assets your game's score won't be affected much.

2. MelonJam has a theme we only release at the start of the jam to prevent people from starting on the game beforehand. The theme score is weighted pretty heavily, and so having a game that connects well to the theme is very important

Hope that answers your questions! 

Copilot would count as AI generated code, however Unity autocomplete/VS Code autocomplete would not count as generative AI.

Hello everyone!

Thank you so much for participating in MelonJam 5! Here are the winners:

NOVICE 

Winners:

🥇  Flow

🥈  Flowy Heights

🥉  PsychoCop

Honorable Mention:

-  Float Like A Butterfly

- Ghost with the Flow

Intermediate 

Winners:

🥇  TURBO PLUMBER

🥈  Light of Night

🥉  Battle Bars

Honorable Mention:

- Cirkut

- Core Critical

- Data Flow Fixer

- Derivery

- Hott Dogg

- Sandlocked

- Sandwich Crew

- Storm Escape

- Styx

- Wind Wave Flow

- Yellow Flow

Advanced 

Winners:

🥇  ESC

🥈  Eggsail

🥉  Upstream!

Honorable Mention:

- Elysium

- Focus Overdrive

- Keep The Flow

- Plungerman

- Paper Baron

- Unnamed Mage

Best Visuals using Cartoon Coffee VFX

🏆   Training Day E.A.C.

Feedback

Thank you all so much for participating and making MelonJam 5 a success! We had so much fun playing everyone's games and have given all playable games some feedback which you can view here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aFdgUKSad633S3KXYiwQk6ji8eq3_G3RiARkLW7AXV8/edit?usp=sharing

Note: Only top 3 of each category gets prizes, and the honorable mention games are sorted alphabetically, not by score.

We hope to see you in December for Winter MelonJam 2024!

Hey all!

The community has spoken! Congratulations to Wind Wave Flow  for winning the Community's Favorite Prize with an average score of 3.729!

Joseph Valls please open a ticket in the #contact-host channel in our discord to claim your team's prize!

NOTE: Overall winners will be announced August 5th (PST)! This announcement is for the community's favorite prize, not for overall prizes.

Hello all!

Thank you all for making MelonJam 5 a success and filling out the feedback form! Here are the winners to the raffle:

Aesprite key:  Urocu

Kenney Asset Forge key/Kenney Game Assets All-in-1 key: HolyBanana818

$45 coupon for the Desmos Store: Shalinimariappan

If you won anything, please open a ticket in #contact-hosts channel in our discord server. If you do not open a ticket by August 4, 2024 11:59 PM UTC, your raffle prize will be rerolled to someone else

Note: This is only the winners for the raffle prize, not for overall winners, those will be announced in a week :)

We will be emailing itch again about this issue. Unfortunately itch has been known to take several days to 2 weeks to resolve issue like these.

Because we changed one of the submission questions during the submission time it broke the submission page. We have already contacted itch about this issue and are waiting on their response.

Hello! 

My game jam's submission page is broken because we changed one of the submisison questions during the submission period. I saw that in one of the other threads on this an admin had to fix it. Could an admin fix it? Our jam page is: https://itch.io/jam/melonjam5

Thank you,
Cupertino Game Development Club

Hey all!

Sorry for the inconvenience, but because of some submission question issues, please check your itch submissions and make sure that your division is there. If it is not there, please edit the submission to include your division.

Thank you!
MelonJam 5 Hosts

Could you join our discord and create a ticket in the #contact-hosts channel? https://discord.gg/7UsAEQHr

Yup! The grace period is 20 minutes and you should still be able to submit

Hey all!

Thank you all so much for participating in MelonJam 5! Remember to fill out the mandatory feedback form at https://tinyurl.com/melonjam5feedback by July 26, 2024 in order to qualify for raffle prizes. Raffle winners will likely be announced July 27, 2024!

Please take some time to play through some of the games submitted by other participants, rate them, and leave comments! Remember that the Community Favorite prize will be going to the highest ranked game the ranking period will be until August 5th 12 AM UTC, or two weeks after the end of the jam.

If you need a late submission link, open a ticket in ⁠#contact-hosts on the discord to ask for one. As a reminder of our late policy, if you still want to be eligible for prizes, you'll need proof that your build started before the end of the grace period, and send your game's Itch link. If you are ok with forfeiting prizes, you can still submit your game and be eligible to get feedback ~3 hours after the grace period ends (3 is tentative, just however long it takes the hosts to compile submissions for judging). Be sure to let a host know when you submit so we don't forget to include your game.

The winners in all our categories will be announced on August 5th, so stay tuned! And check out #prize-claiming if you haven't already, there's many prizes that you can still claim and use after the jam!

Best,

MelonJam 5 Host Team

MelonJam 5 has now begun! The theme is FLOW. Here’s some definitions:

1. move along or out steadily and continuously in a current or stream; a steady, continuous stream of something
2. proceed or be produced smoothly, continuously, and effortlessly

More definitions can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow

• Warning: some of these are just names of things

Tips, to get your creative juices flowing:

• Use multiple/uncommon definitions if it makes sense for your game
• Check that the game can’t be easily reskinned to fit a different theme (that is, the game was clearly made with the theme in mind)
• There are no genre limitations. Perhaps considering things from a different genre's perspective could give you an idea.
• Questions to ask yourself and your teammates: will “flow” be helpful to the player or in opposition to their goals? What are some things that can flow (besides, like, water)? Could you make use of expressions that contain “flow” - go with/against the flow, etc.? What happens when the “flow” stops?

REMINDER: you must keep a document of all outside/pre-made assets used. 

Hi everyone, thank you all so much for participating in MelonJam 4! Without further ado, please congratulate yourself and the winners for an amazing job:

WINNERS

NOVICE:

1. Corrupt Me Not
2. The Human Factory
3. Corruption Capitalism

INTERMEDIATE:

1. Neuralien
2. Inject The Virus
3. Miss Inconspicuous Maid Cleaning Co

ADVANCED:

1. Robocalyptic Invasion
2. Tape Damage
3. CHECKBOT

If your team has won something, please have one person open a ticket (if you have not yet) in #⁠contact-hosts in our Discord server and send the usernames of the rest of the members.

FEEDBACK/RANKINGS

Regardless of whether you won or not, we're really, really proud of you. You can view your scores, rank, and feedback at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13HKFw7c70iF0ecnojHBhiXmZXL4R8-JjQA33KtrO1C0/edit?usp=sharing. Make sure you read the ENTIRETY of the first sheet/tab before you ask any questions on it -- the scores shown are not raw scores; request for raw scores, which includes per-criteria scores, in our Discord server.

Thank you for being a part of MelonJam 4!

Of course! Your games belong to you; all MelonJam submissions automatically follow https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.

Just keep in mind to include a jam version that judges can grade.

Hi there, go for it!

Hey! My jam (https://itch.io/jam/melonjam4) seems to be throwing an error for some participants when they open it.

It looks like this person had the same issue as me: https://itch.io/t/1475508/500-server-error-on-jam-page-submission-page, but I don't know how I'm supposed to use the unlock_fields parameter (I can't find anything online, would anyone be able to direct me somewhere that has an explanation?).

I know I updated a question from single line to single choice (accidentally hit multiple choice in the middle though), but now I don't know what I should do because we've gotten submissions for both.

Hi, yes, we'll see the updated version!

Then sure, go for it!

I'm not sure what you mean, but your game will still be graded on the same criteria.

Hello! Yes, you can just have it run in browser.

I'm not sure what you mean by "avoid export problems," but yes, you can make it playable in browser.

Ah, sorry about that then! Yeah, worst case you'd just have to use free assets online.

We'd recommend posting in the Discord server for more reach! You can let us know there if you haven't found anyone in time.

While you wait for artists, we'd recommend checking out free assets online or amending your post to make it clearer what type of assets & in what style you'll need! (E.x. pixel art sprite of a character, animated? facing all directions?)

You don't need to write it; you'll have an option to choose when you submit your game! But if you'd like to, go for it :)

Hey! That's not an issue, though your game may be judged by less judges. If this is something that would bother you, please let us know!

Hey! Is there anything we can help with?

Yeah of course, just make sure you mention it in the doc you're using to track premade assets :)

It would be nice if you could mention what exactly is included in the template too! Otherwise a link to just the template is fine.

You can definitely join solo!

Prizes are given per team, not per team member, so if you win anything it'd just mean you get to keep it all to yourself :)

Hi there! A game that's playable in the browser is even better than an executable file :)