Same position here, doesn't feel great to wreck your sleep schedule for a week and find that the place it earned you is amongst the moral equivalent of spam bots.  On the bright side, that characterization is exaggerated, plenty of legit submissions; I'll definitely play your game Rhys, gotta get that well-earned sleep first.

That's the thing though, it IS a jam about making an fps in 7 days, it's just also a jam about other stuff, like not encouraging crunch, giving people time to do the challenge who wouldn't have the option otherwise, and a dozen other things. That stuff is far more important to me than the perception that me telling you to limit yourself vs you limiting yourself is all that different.

It's a personal challenge, and the nature of the jam has always been this way and that's a big part of why people love it.
You took the challenge. You did it! You should still feel awesome, that is and always was the entire point.

There will always be people skirting around the edges and not participating in the spirit of the jam no matter what words are said on the jam page, and I don't think cutting the rest of the value from the jam for everyone else because of that is worth it, not even a little.

The spirit of the jam is still the same, so I'd recommend participating with that in mind next time so your expectations align better, and you should still feel great about submitting with whatever constraints you chose, because that's still a big deal.

The jam may look different year to year as well keep in mind, but also keeping in mind the whole global pandemic and *gestures wildly*, I'm still very happy with everything here, and every jam I'm blown away by the value people create and the value people get from it. I get a lot of feedback from all angles btw, and I hear them all. So far the number of positive experiences is still worth doing the jam the way it's always been done because that's kinda why people come back.

So thanks for participating, and congrats to you and the other people here that challenged themselves. You're awesome and the jam and it's community appreciates you! I hope to see you challenge yourself again next time.