This should have been mentioned earlier but if you made a VR entry for your game you should include a full playthrough video with commentary or a text guide since some of the judges might lack VR hardware to play it. We'll give you some extra time to get that done.
If you are looking for a team or looking for people to join your team don't forget to join the GGJ Discord and look for the #mpgj-lfg-recruit-me and #mpgj-lfg-join-our-team channels to help you find others to work with.
There are a lot of other channels dedicated to this jam including #mpgj-ask-photon to have your questions about Photon answered by their experts.
Thanks for the feedback, we will be posting some new updates about the criteria soon. The jam is sponsored by and focused on Photon though so they would like to encourage as many people to try and use their product as possible.
Team size is unlimited as long as you can manage everyone. I just added a field on the form for Team/Game name so you can add that there to your response.
You can, we are doing team formation and posting updates there but if you can find people to work with off of Discord then you are able to participate.
Seeing as how there was some confusion over the submission deadline we decided to extend it to 11:59pm Pacific tonight as was posted on the DeepWell jam site. We will move the final presentations to 10am pacific on 23 March 2022 to give everyone a chance to get some rest afterward.
Join us on Twitch.tv/GlobalGameJam for final presentations on Sunday 22 May 2022 @ 3PM Pacific.
For your game to be included you will need to make a gameplay trailer or video for your entry. Here is an example of a good one from another jam I hosted but you don't have to get this detailed with it. Please keep the video to 3 minutes or less.
You will also have a chance to be live on the stream and talk about your team and your game if you join us in the Discord voice channel. Final presentations will start at 3PM Pacific on twitch.tv/GlobalGameJam and well will gather in the MHGJ Voice Chat channel on the GGJ Discord if you want to come on and talk about your game.
We really appreciate the thoughtful and vulnerable feedback and the whole team has been reading and digesting it on a deep level to think about how this new genre of games and venture moves forward in a mindful and intentional way with feedback like this and people like yourself in mind. I realized I didn't answer and earlier question of yours and that is that any type of game, physical, VR/AR, ARG, digital, etc is accepted for the jam.
I suffered from deep depression and anxiety myself and can relate to that feeling of not even wanting to pick up the controller and getting no joy from games in those moments but knowing they were there when and if I needed them was always some form of comfort to me at least.
You are right therapy is a highly personal and personalized experience and it will be a major challenge for game developers to make games that can be more than just a brief distraction from the real world and offer actual therapeutic benefit in some way. I believe that game developers are some of the most creative people in the world and if given the right set of tools and knowledge from people with clinical backgrounds they can come up with ideas that will be beneficial to game players all over the world. Games have a special way of creating and building empathy and connection that most forms of non-interactive media don't have and it is why I believe it is worth trying and possible to make games and interactive experiences that can help people in need.
I am speaking for myself though and not on behalf of DeepWell but know that they have heard your feedback and appreciate it.
