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Thank you everyone who participated in this year's jam! And a huge thank you to the ink community for being welcoming, and helpful! And a special thank you to Inkle for creating ink, a delightful tool for interactive fiction creators!

The all the categories except Best Overall were judged by jam participant voting. The Best Overall was decided by Sam Beckbessinger and Sam Wilson, two splendid authors and humans. Please check out their work! They've included why they made their selections.

Alright then, let's do it!

DRUMROLLL.....

Best Overall

WINNER - EVE Project

Eve Project hooks you from the start with its clever design, theme and story. There’s a real sense of urgency to the mystery, and it cleverly teaches you its mechanics as you play. Our only caveats are that its link to the jam’s theme isn’t particularly strong, and that the clue to the second part of the final puzzle is broken. But, overall, it’s a really smart and polished experience. Congratulations to the team - this is a triumph of game design.

RUNNER UP - The Bid For Hammersmith Tower

The Bid For Hammersmith Tower has excellent writing, and the art and design are superb. There weren’t many meaningful choices, but the characterisation was strong, and the story was creepy and engaging and fit the theme of the jam perfectly. A very, very strong contender.

HONORABLE MENTION - Warped Reflections

Warped Reflections is a neat, more traditional text-based adventure. Despite its simplicity, it’s a powerful experience. The writing’s brilliant, the stakes and choices feel meaningful, and it builds tension well. Great work!

And now, by participant voting...

Best Story

1st... The Bid for Hammersmith Tower by Stanwixbuster

2nd... warped reflections by zorkie ...tied with... EVE project by Cow_a_banga

Best Use of Ink

1st... HOLD ON by bushn

2nd... EVE project by Cow_a_banga

3rd... The Bid for Hammersmith Tower by Stanwixbuster

Fun

1st... EVE project by Cow_a_banga

2nd... Experience Points by goldenxp

3rd...Love Hotel by heyimfishy

Creativity

1st... EVE project by Cow_a_banga

2nd... Kuu Gets Possessed By a Red Balloon RPG by LITHOBREAKERS, Stanwixbuster

3rd... HOLD ON by bushn

Art

1st... GENTLEMEN by FOX FOREST

2nd... The Bid for Hammersmith Tower by Stanwixbuster ...tied with... EVE project by Cow_a_banga

Sound & Music

1st... EVE project by Cow_a_banga

2nd... GENTLEMEN by FOX FOREST

3rd... Love Hotel by heyimfishy

For the full results: https://itch.io/jam/inkjam-2024/results

Disclaimer: inkJAM is a community run jam not associated with Inkle Studios

Cool, thanks for confirmation.

This appears to use isolatedphenomenon's Disco Elysium inkjs template. If so, please update the description to give credit.

Synchronicity is a concept Carl Jung coined to describe events that coincide in time and appear meaningfully related, yet lack a discoverable causal connection. Perhaps, Jung suggests, synchronicity reveals universal forces at work.

The word is of course closely related to 'synchronous' and 'synchronic' - both referring to events happening at the same time.

The roots of synchronicity are simple: 'syn-' meaning 'same' and 'chronos' meaning 'time', both from Greek origins.

Anyway, here's Alanis Morissette exploring (some) examples of tragic synchronicity...

btw... the root of 'irony' is from Ancient Greek eírōn, 'one who feigns ignorance' - which is ironic because irony is usually a favourite topic of those feigning smartiness.

In a total coincidence both the judges of Best Overall are named Sam. No relation. Just synchronicity. Both are accomplished South African writers who've got a couple of Interactive Fiction credits too.

Btw... Only Best Overall is a judged category, all the rest are based on community voting.

Introducing...

Sam Beckbessinger! (aka Alpha Sam)

The bestselling author of Manage Your Money Like a F*%king Grownup, sold in six countries and loved by people who hate talking about money. She teaches creative writing and pens horror stories and kids’ TV shows. Her perimenopausal werewolf novel Femme Feral is coming in summer 2026.
Find more at: www.sambeckbessinger.com

Btw, I loved her horror novel Girls of Little Hope, co-written with Dale Halvorsen

And now...

Sam Wilson! (aka Omega Sam) (not the Falcon)

The author of the novels Zodiac and The First Murder On Mars, and the current show-runner of the animated series Jungle Beat.
Find more at: www.samwilsonwriting.com

Btw, The First Murder on Mars is a delicious, carefully researched thriller - Mars ain't gonna save us from us.

Btw, check out his character generator here: www.samwilsonwriting.com/resources/ArchetypeEngine5.html

As I'm typing up this post inkJAM has hit 30 sign ups. That's pretty rad. It's a going to be a small jam but the community is passionate and active. What I would love to see more of are in-person jam sites. There's 2 so far! One in the USA and one in South Africa.

If you're putting one together, even if it's just 5 people in a cafe for a couple of hours then message me on discord (jonkeevy) or via email (freelancer@jonkeevy.com) - I want to turn this map into a CONSTELLATION of ink users!

Sites:

South Africa: Ravel Writers at Maker's Massive
Homecoming Centre, Cnr Buitenkant & Caledon streets, Cape Town
Friday 12pm to 8pm, Saturday & Sunday 10am to 8pm (CAT)

USA: Seattle Indies at Academy of Interactive Entertainment 
305 Harrison St Ste 405 · Seattle, WA
Saturday, Nov. 2nd from 1pm to 7pm PDT (UTC-7)

The functions are plug-and-play, so the problem lies with my explanations. I'll work on an update with clearer instructions.

Adding that to the Feature wish list!

Hello, new to Calico and tried to get it running but had difficulty. In Chrome and Firefox the index will show a blank black page. Works on Catmint though.

EDIT SOLVED:

I found this line in calico's git:
"Due to browser security issues, you may need to use Catmint, or run a local server, in order to test your game. These issues won't be present once your game is uploaded to a website like itch.io." - which explains things. I suggest including it the instructions.
Thank you for the tools, they're great.

Understood :) Thanks for the reply

If this is Herobook the simple version... where is the advanced version?

Very moreish lil deckbuilder. Looking forward to see it grow.