Your game's download must include everything (especially software) required to play it on Windows 10/11 without breaking any licenses/laws. You can't just ignore jam rules because "Joel has done x before", especially considering the judges aren't Joel, other streamers who may want to try some games from the jam aren't Joel, and other jam participants rating your game aren't Joel. You can't expect everyone to go download and set up an entirely separate piece of software just to play 1 game out of god-knows how many.
As I said, if you're able to bundle an emulator with the download without breaking it's license, with an easy way to start the game as-if it's any other game on Windows, then there's no issue. You could even try adding things like a custom config file with controls and other settings specifically suited for your game.
As cool as it is that this is an actual Genesis game, it does break rule 3 by not having a proper Windows version.
As ideal as a native Windows port would be, that might be a bit too much to ask. If you can find one with a flexible enough license, please try to bundle an emulator with the download, ideally with a way to click a shortcut/script/executable to automatically start the game in the emulator. We need the process of starting a game to be roughly the same for everything, otherwise Joey gets confused :( Not disqualified for now.
If it requires the user to download other software/files or another game to run it, then it's a mod. If everything needed to play the game can be included in the download (legally and without violating any licenses or usage agreements) then it's standalone.
Hi everyone, this is copy-pasted across from a Bluesky thread I typed out going over some things from this year's jam, alongside some updates regarding future ones.
First, we're currently re-working how games get put into packs, mainly how many, as both Vinny and chat have been getting burnt out by the quantity of games. This'll mean less games get onto the stream, but should make the streams more entertaining.
These changes will be implimented in ShroomJam 2026, happening same time next year. It'll follow the same general formula as this year's, as I think we've got it pretty down.
Also, congratulations to Gnorts VS The Greylenoids for getting featured on the Itch front page! 100% deserved, easily one of the most polished and fleshed-out games we've gotten for the jam, and the fact it was made within the time limit is nothing short of a miracle.
Also also, for anyone wondering about another FrenJam, FrenJam 2026 will still be happening, same as this year, starting April 1st, so keep an eye out.
As always, thanks for participating! Although I've had to step back a bit compared to last year, hosting these jams is always a treat and I'm routinely amazed by what the Vinesauce community can manage creatively. See you next year!
There will be a post here in the community tab when we finish vetting the games and get packs ready. In-terms of the actual streams, there's no real schedule or pre-planning for when he'll play stuff, so your best bet is probably turning on notifications for his Twitter or Bluesky to catch when he starts a stream. He has mentioned that he'd ideally like to do jam stuff as a Sunday stream thing, but nothing's set in stone.
Didn't quite submit in time? Reply with a link to your game's page for a late-download link! This thread will be open for ~12 hours. Please note that this isn't to give you 12 hours extra time to work on your game, it's for if you didn't quite have an uploadable version ready by the deadline.
(Might be a little slow responding to these this year.)
Saying "we'll let you cheat if you put a dedicated sound person on your team" is not the way to get more roles for sound designers and composers, plus we'd need to make sure said "sound designers" aren't also doing art, programming, writing or anything else to stop people just claiming "my secondary programmer is actually a composer because they put 1 single piano note in the game files". Not to mention how it would bring up arguments for why other roles should be counted separately, snowballing into teams of 5-6 people making things completely unfair on solo devs. Anyone who works directly on your game is a team member. Every team member is a further advantage over smaller teams and solo developers. The only reason teams are allowed at-all is to give people the option to get other people in to fill their own gaps in skill/knowledge, and if someone decides to waste one of those team slots on a 2nd programmer or something instead of a sound designer, that's on them.
Interesting game, but even moreso than your submission last year, the subject matter and tone is way too heavy and the religous imagery doesn't exactly help. Whereas Reboot just barely toed the line, me and the mod team feel this one takes it too far, so we have no choice but to disqualify it on grounds of breaking the "Keep it fun" rule.
Yeah, algomusic and similar stuff is fine. Our definition of AI here is more about modern neural-net stuff. Just make sure to mention the program somewhere in the credits.
We will not hesitate to ban you from the jam and it's discussion tabs permanently going forward if you repeat your worthless nit-picking from last year. People understand what the rules mean well enough, if they try to worm around them with wording technicalities then they're obviously just joining the jam to cause trouble as opposed to an actual desire to make something good, so will be banned. A 5-page essay isn't required to explain that "making your game before you're supposed to be making your game is bad actually".
Stuff like a text engine, a basic character controller script, or a menu handler. Little bits of groundwork stuff that you'd probably just code in the exact same way anyways. There's no real hard limit, just use your better judgement.
FrenJam is now over. Huge thanks to everyone who participated! The games will now be vetted and put into packs to be played on-stream, so expect to see some of your games played soon-ish!
Hey, so I've had another jam mod raise concerns to me that some of the stuff later in the game breaks rule 4 (specifically the part about overly-heavy topics). Not gonna disqualify it outright, but we probably won't be able to have it played on-stream. Also, you should probably add a warning on the game page and when the game starts up.
