I think the part you're missing here is that treatment of the subject is often mishandled, and while one person might not see it as glorifying, another might.  The rule is as it stands, and the recommendation is less commentary on the rule than it is how often people run afoul to it on accident.

Because my recommendations are not rules, just guidance to improve people's odds during the competition.  

Yep, demos are fine for submission.  

Yep, we download all of the games, so you need to have a downloadable option.

You can participate and even win solo.

There are no limits to the size of the team, though I will warn you larger teams typically have their own problems and rarely make it into the finals if they're competing.

We've had Night in the Woods style submissions before.  If you're making navigation only in the side scroller, that should be fine but if you're making some other type of gameplay with the side scrolling, it would probably get pulled for not being a VN.

Generally it's acceptable as long as the entirety of what is in your submission was something you made within the running period.  If you bring in assets, code, writing, etc. from before the start of the jam, it would be disqualified.

We're fairly flexible with it as long as you're at leaset in the ballpark of narrative games.  Chat sims are even a category this year.

There is no rule regarding length/time to complete, but if you are competing I would suggest aiming for 7.5k-10k with a complete story. 

The judges are looking for reasonably short but complete experiences.

Gore and disfigurement is permitted but as a judge I recommend it in moderation if you are competing for ranked prizes.

We don't distribute prize winnings through any other method than through Itch.IO's own payment system.  Anything compatible with it will work with our prize distributions.

No.

Blood, and psychological themes are generally fine.

Gore and disfigurement is permitted but as a judge I recommend it in moderation if you are competing for ranked prizes.

You cannot demonstrate/instruct, glorify, or issue a statement of intent of suicide,. You've omitted in your quotes.  There are a few exceptions to this, such as instances of noble sacrifice where the desired outcome isn't strictly self-destruction.  As the host of the jam, I would recommend staying far away from suicide as a type of content, as your entry can be pulled, ranked or not, if any of the judges feels it violates that rule.  Visually depicting the act of suicide, or the immediate aftermath of one always violates the rule.

We tend to be fairly permissive when it comes to what we allow.  Minigames and exploration are usually okay, but the primary focus of the visual novel should be the reading moreso than anything else.

Movement and navigation is usually fine as long as things like combat aren't introduced.

Hey there.  Just reaching out about the Spooktober Visual Novel Jam asset bundle!  We need approvals for it to continue.  Can you go here and approve when you have a moment?  https://itch.io/bundle/3846/edit

Hey there! Just reaching out about the Spooktober Visual Novel Asset Bundle!  We need approvals in order to get it started, can you go here and submit your approval? 

https://itch.io/bundle/3846/edit

Hey there!  Just reaching out about the Spooktober Visual Novel Asset Bundle!  I need to collect approvals from everyone who submitted and you're still pending.  

If you could head here and hit approve, I'd appreciate it! https://itch.io/bundle/3846/edit  We unfortunately can't start until we have enough approvals.

Hey there.  I'm reaching out to try to get you to approve yourself for the bundle.  Can you check your itch.io e-mail or go here? https://itch.io/bundle/3846/edit 

Hey there!  Your approval for the inclusion of this pack is outstanding.  Please complete the approval here ASAP.  The bundle cannot go live until we have enough approvals.  https://itch.io/bundle/3846/edit

There are no engine restrictions for general participation.

To be eligible for the Best Light.VN submission and best NaniNovel submission, you do have to use those specific engines, otherwise you're welcome to use whatever engine at your disposal.

See title.  Don't do it.

Yep.  It can be Halloween related but not spooky, or it can be spooky but not Halloween related, or it can be both.  All of those work.

Quick reminder that Spooktober does not allow NSFW entries.  You didn't explicitly say it would be NSFW, but it feels like you may be wanting to go that direction.

https://discord.gg/VabcAmJGVB?event=1532120752902504479

Judge passes are required for presenters only!   You can purchase judge passes from the community Patreon, no subscription required!

Come join us in voice and text to help find teams and team members for Spooktober! This is the best time to find teammates and teams to participate with. Voice participation is encouraged, but not required!

The Meet & Greets happen in DevTalk, the Visual Novel Developer Network's discord server!  In the open Meet & Greets, participants can either listen in or raise their hands when asked to.  The host will ask each volunteer to speak on stage or submit their written responses to be read out by one of the co-hosts.  Be prepared to answer the following questions:

1. Who are you and what team do you represent if any?
2. What are you looking for?
3. Give us a short pitch of your skills or project
4. Answer the ice breaker question, TBD the day of.

You are permitted to give a short presentation lasting no more than 7 minutes of your pitch or skill offerings for teams. In order to present, you must confirm your judge pass with the host.

After all volunteers have been taken, an open floor session will start, where any number of volunteers may raise to hand to speak together on stage with each other and the hosts.

https://discord.gg/VabcAmJGVB?event=1532120103594889416

Come join us in voice and text to help find teams and team members for Spooktober! This is the best time to find teammates and teams to participate with. Voice participation is encouraged, but not required!

The Meet & Greets happen in DevTalk, the Visual Novel Developer Network's discord server!  In the open Meet & Greets, participants can either listen in or raise their hands when asked to.  The host will ask each volunteer to speak on stage or submit their written responses to be read out by one of the co-hosts.  Be prepared to answer the following questions:

1. Who are you and what team do you represent if any?
2. What are you looking for?
3. Give us a short pitch of your skills or project
4. Answer the ice breaker question, TBD the day of.

Your answer should ideally shoot to be to be around a minute and a half to three minutes at most.  As we expect to have many participants again this year, we may ask you to finish your turn if it goes on too long.

After all volunteers have been taken, an open floor session will start, where any number of volunteers may raise to hand to speak together on stage with each other and the hosts.

https://discord.gg/VabcAmJGVB?event=1532119819577462894

Come join us in voice and text to help find teams and team members for Spooktober! This is the best time to find teammates and teams to participate with. Voice participation is encouraged, but not required!

The Meet & Greets happen in DevTalk, the Visual Novel Developer Network's discord server!  In the open Meet & Greets, participants can either listen in or raise their hands when asked to.  The host will ask each volunteer to speak on stage or submit their written responses to be read out by one of the co-hosts.  Be prepared to answer the following questions:

1. Who are you and what team do you represent if any?
2. What are you looking for?
3. Give us a short pitch of your skills or project
4. Answer the ice breaker question, TBD the day of.

Your answer should ideally shoot to be to be around a minute and a half to three minutes at most.  As we expect to have many participants again this year, we may ask you to finish your turn if it goes on too long.

After all volunteers have been taken, an open floor session will start, where any number of volunteers may raise to hand to speak together on stage with each other and the hosts.

You can purchase your judge pass here: https://www.patreon.com/VNDevTalk/posts/spooktober-novel-162552448?utm_medium=cl... When submitting your project, use the Patreon order code in the submission form!  If there are any questions or concerns, you're welcome to reach out at Stella@spooktobervnjam.com or reach out on our Discord here: https://discord.gg/devtalk

New this year:  The first 100 participants to purchase a pass will receive it at a reduced price while those after will receive it for the full price.  No subscription is required!  The post looks like this:

Last year, we sold 191 passes. While that sounds like a good thing for us, it's a bit more complicated than that.  Read on for more info.

So why is there an entrance fee for the mainline prizes?

The quick answer? To reduce the number of entries that judges have to review annually.  The fee introduces friction in the process for participants. 

Two years ago, we had 7 judges responsible for judging and eventually ranking 272 submissions in less than 30 days.  On average, a judge had to review 70 entries in around 21 days each to maintain the standard of quality of review that we’ve kept.  Ask any of them.  It’s a staggering and taxing task despite the joy it brings us.

Recruiting new judges has been met with significant difficulty, since many people we would consider experts in this simply are not available to take on the tremendous workload at hand, and without more judges we cannot promise a lighter quantity of work per judge.  This creates a bit of a catch 22 when recruiting.

I prefer to do good business when I can.  I don’t take sponsorship money from people I don’t think a sponsorship with us could actually help.  Similarly, I can’t keep asking the judges, who have been loyal and enduring despite the hardships, to continue at the rate they’re going.  We are fully expecting to only have 5-7 judges this year, and the jam is trending towards 300 submissions this year.  Worst case scenario, we're looking at judges needing to review somewhere near 120-150 entries each to maintain our standards.  We need a method of mitigating the administrative strain the event causes without compromising the integrity or quality of review. 

Here's some other answers to questions:

• Everyone is still able to participate and compete in Spooktober.  That will never change.
• Open compete categories will be nominations based, with public vote ranking taken into consideration in addition to community and judge nominations.  Judges will continue to review the nominations and select winners there. (Roughly 6~ entries per category, per judge.)
• The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prizes require a the judge pass to qualify a team for consideration.
• Judge passes also entitle participants to pitch and present in a special competitive Meet & Greet, focused on helping people find teams and team members seeking to compete for the grand prizes.  This Meet & Greet is scheduled towards the end of August, and purchase of a Judge Pass is required BEFORE that date in order to present.
• The goal of this pass is to reduce the total number of entries the judges need to review from 250-300 to 100 or less.  This would amount to each judge only needing to review 30-40 entries each and permit us to continue judging at the quality we want to maintain.  Yes, because we sold 191, the normal price is now $15 rather than 10, with the first 100 receiving it at its original price.
• Proceeds from the passes will be given to the judges to thank them for their time or given back to the community at their discretion.

It's fine, you can make a translation for it if you want.

No, that wouldn't count.  Credits and other information about the visual novel not in the visual novel itself don't count.