As a lover of stats and records, here's my post covering my thoughts about the execution of the jam, results, mistakes, and more. This is also a helpful record for me to review if/when Haroldjam gets planned for next year.

Entries at jam end: 35
Entries by end of judgment: 32
2  games removed then added to extra submissions
1 game removed from jam due to being a non Harold game posted to many many jams
Votes: 557
Average ratings per game: 17.4
Distribution: Max 21, Min 13

Return participants: 8
New participants: 20

Successes:

Given the stats, I'm extremely happy with the results. We had a huge number of new people join and show us their skills, and a lot of return talent as well. Members generously voted on each others games, despite the huge amount of entries. I noticed many helpful comments as well, all in the spirit of the Beta Testers server. I was also impressed by how many multiple submissions there were. Two members submitted 3 projects, 2 submitted two. Lots of people jumped on the bandwagon last minute, and skyrocketed the submission count, which added a ton of hype to the jam.

Hidden from the stats is the quality of games. The originality in this jam as staggering, with no two games alike. I may have enjoyed playing these entries more than just about any other jam's, and that speaks to the quality of the community, and the inspirational effect of Harold himself.

Nowis' banner art was a runaway hit, and I credit it with a lot of the hype and enthusiasm that people brought to the jam. It was so ridiculous, so high in quality, I'm certain its responsible for drawing attention to the jam and the community, and I'm so thankful to Nowis for contributing his time and talent in this way. I provided just about no help with prompts for this, so 100% of the credit goes to Nowis for drawing inspiration from the such an unexpected source.

I think promotions were pretty successful. Decent penetration into the forums, Twitter, and other Discord servers. Nova Kane recorded a wonderful podcast advertisement that played on RPG Maker Cola. I think we came close to maximizing our opportunities here, given the time and connections I had.

Mistakes:

First of all, I nearly sabotaged the jam by scheduling it at the same time as the largest RPGM jam in years. Thankfully, I reached out to Touchfuzzy inquiring about promotions, and he helped me narrowly avoid my mistake. I did have to do some last minute rescheduling, and the jam occurred when many people were recovering from the previous jam. Based on a few reports, this prevented a few people from entering. It also meant I promoted the jam in a lot of places a bit early, and had some ham-handed Tweets (that probably weren't noticed anyways).

Secondly, I announced the themes as soon as the page went live. This made it easier for potential unscrupulous entrants to begin their jam work early, before they were supposed to. Luckily I don't think this was a problem, but better not to make it possible.

Lastly were the prizes. While not necessarily a mistake, in retrospect they seem relatively unimportant. I'm thrilled to reward and incentivize these creative pursuits, but given how many people refused my Haroldcoins, I'm thinking the real reward is the devving itself, the feedback, the laughs, the community.  I plan on taking my prize budget and contributing in other ways hopefully (see below).

Plans for Next Year:

If Haroldjam survives to next year, I plan on coordinating better with the big RM figures to avoid overlap of jam times. I'll also seek some sort of official sponsorship if possible. Themes will also be announced when the jam goes live, not way way beforehand. I hope to get more artwork made ahead of time, maybe get more shared assets created that can be used by the community.

I'll also still award prizes in the future, but may scale it down, and put more resources into things like art, music, etc., that the entire community can have access. In this way, maybe I can reward the whole community, or inspire a few new entries with the assets.

Feedback:

Had a great time, and I hope everyone else did too! If you have feedback about the jam, I'd love to hear your thoughts!  Anything is welcome, but especially interested in the following.

-What did you most like/dislike about the jam?

- Where did you hear about the jam?
- What inspired you to join/submit?
- If you didn't join/didn't submit, what was the barrier?
- Future theme suggestions?
- Do you have any assets you'd like to make available to the community for next year?
- Any other thoughts or suggestions?

-Where did you hear about the jam? 

Sources like the community and from word of mouth online.

- What inspired you to join/submit? 

I joined simply to prove a point and break the systematic base of the structure of game jams even if it meant throwing a lot of controversial design choices into the mix. That being said, now that I know what to avoid and where to look. I'd say the feedback is incredibly welcome and eye-opening.  Also because I dipped out of the Touch the Stars jam, so I have to end up wanting to make something for this.

- If you didn't join/didn't submit, what was the barrier? 

I was close to not submitting mostly because of the queue ruling and the fact that you can't see submitted games till the dev period is over. It gives little room for early feedback. That being said, one can argue that people only have the patience to play the game once, and with all the bells and whistles, you won't get another chance to have the game checked for any errors again with the same tester/player. So there is that to consider.

- Future theme suggestions? 

All I ask is not to make the theme VS Reid again, otherwise we'd be interpreting Reid as an antagonist for all time.

- Do you have any assets you'd like to make available to the community for next year? 

I'll consider it.

- Any other thoughts or suggestions?

But no, serious answer. I'd like it if there is a way for us to have a bit more open possibilities for more Harold shenanigans that allow the judging criteria and special positions to have more variety. The Harold Ascended award is one thing, but I'd like other awards like the funniest entry, the most serious entry, the academy of excellence, etc. That way, there are more winners even though it might clog the criteria tab a bit.

Heya! I'm only a half-entrant but given the nature of the questions I think my feedback is invited as well!

-What did you most like/dislike about the jam?

I admit, the whole theme thing made it feel a little limiting at times. Having to make a game about Harold already narrows down the possibilities a lot, but with the way the rules worded that the theme must be "prominent and obvious" it made me pretty stressed thinking about how to incorporate a lot of the sorta vague terms I was given. After later being clarified that the theme isn't that big of a deal, I felt a lot better about it, but I also understand that the point of the theme is to help prevent cheating by making preemptive projects, so I can't really recommend just getting rid of it, obviously.

- Where did you hear about the jam?

I'm in the RM Beta Testers server, so it's basically impossible NOT to hear about it. Frankly, at first I wasn't interested in joining the jam at all, so I was almost slightly annoyed by how prevalent it was. I definitely ended up warming up to it all in the end.

- What inspired you to join/submit?

I've been working with DJ for a little over two years now, and he's grown to be one of my closest friends, so seeing him learning RM by making extremely goofy games made me really eager to have him direct that humour into this jam, both because Human's aggressive marketing implied that more entrants would make him really happy, and also because a comedic jam like this sounds like the perfect training grounds to let my new student hone his abilities! Seeing him put everything he had into this jam made me really excited to help him out.

- If you didn't join/didn't submit, what was the barrier?

Probably comes as no surprise, but Axial is just a much bigger priority to me. I'm sure if I wanted to, I could have easily found the time to make a great entry to this jam on my own, but the time I would be spending working on a jam that I'm not 100% invested in would be time and skills taken away from my real passion project. It's possible by the next jam, my circumstances might be different and I can blow you guys away with my radical skillz ;D

- Future theme suggestions?

This is admittedly more Reid-y than Harold, but I think a Modern vs. Fantasy theme might be fun!

Or perhaps a Reid jam instead of Harold...? Hohohoho...

- Do you have any assets you'd like to make available to the community for next year?

I'd be happy to leave my 16x16 Harold sprite available, and I'm also going to double check with DJ to see if the Reid sprite in that art style could also be made publicly available. If there's any demand for more assets in this art style, I'd be happy to make some, but I also don't want to spend energy creating sprites that nobody wants to use.

- Any other thoughts or suggestions?

I think the rating categories were a little too vague at times. The "Harold" category, for example, was extremely hard for me to judge with. Was it meant to be the sheer quantity of Harold? How much I like how Harold was portrayed? The time limit thing was also supposed to affect the Harold rating which made it even more vague.

There was also a lack of any way for me to really rate how comedically funny the games in question were. Of course, I understand why: a good number of the games in the jam weren't comedies at all! But admittedly, it felt difficult to really rate how much I enjoyed something with the categories given (my top two favourites, HaroldHarold and Stuck In The Past, both felt they had to be rated lower than I would have liked due to them not being objectively "fun" or not being extremely Harold centric, for example). I'm not entirely certain how I would recommend fixing this, but the three categories given didn't quite feel satisfactory to me personally.

Overall though, I was pleasantly surprised by this jam! This was my first time ever participating even a little in a game jam, and it was definitely an interesting experience. I'm a little more open to the idea of joining them in the future now that I've seen that I don't necessarily have to make it a huge time commitment if I don't want to, especially since I had a lot of things that I chose not to do or suggest in order to ensure my partner had as much control over the project as possible; I think now that he can take care of himself, I'll be competing alone next time!

-What did you most like/dislike about the jam?

By far my favorite part of the jam was finding a new creative outlet. Not only does it let me express myself as a storyteller, but all 15 years of being a hobbyist composer are finally coming to a good use. (I mean they did when I joined the Axial team, but still.) Writing more music for Stuck In The Past alone than I have in the last few years was amazing since I love writing music and don't compose nearly enough.

What I also really loved was that Stuck In The Past doubled as the best RPG Maker tutorial I could ask for. I have a godawful work ethic and only work well under deadlines, so having that hanging over my head kept me going. Having every lesson turn into a full-fledged game instead of little bits and bobs here and there made it feel a lot more rewarding.  When all said and done, Stuck In The Past is one of my favorite personal achievements even if it's just a half-hour jam game with default RPG Maker characters. Imagine what I can do if I make an IP!

My least favorite part was the near constant anxiety. Is this game too ambitious? Am I not nailing the theme enough? Why won't this script work? Can I finish in time? Trust me, I wish crediting myself as Anxiety Haver and Deadline Pusher in the Stuck In The Past credits was a joke.

- Where did you hear about the jam?

I only got into RPG Maker because I found out through a Twitter post 2003 was $2 on Steam. I was part of the Axial team for a few years and knew that used RPG Maker, so I decided to give it a shot. I later stumbled upon this jam somehow, but I kinda blew it off. After buying VX Ace for $10 and posting some screenshots of a goofy test game on Twitter, Violet Spinel brought up the Haroldverse jam and told me he'd make me any assets I needed for an entry. I decided to one him up with a completely original soundtrack and Stuck In The Past was born.

- What inspired you to join/submit?

Violet being awesome. I'd probably still be scratching my head over what a label is if I didn't enter this jam.

- Future theme suggestions?

Slimes. Visual novels. Harold vs. Alex from RPG Maker 2000. BOULDERS.

- Do you have any assets you'd like to make available to the community for next year?

I would love to pitch my 8-bit Theme6 remix from Stuck In The Past into the ring for anyone who would like to use it. Additionally, I'd like to reply to Violet by saying I am more than happy with 8-bit Reid joining next year's jam as well.

- Any other thoughts or suggestions?

I agree with you not posting the themes until the jam begins; Stuck In The Past did indeed begin development before jam time, but I scrapped it when I found out I had to wait and started from scratch once jam time began. I also really love Berry's suggestion for different awards.

This was an incredible jam. It really helped me get my feet wet with RPG Maker, gave me a new creative outlet I really enjoy, and made me really, really love Harold. He's so beautiful and goofy and kind-hearted and I will protect him with my life. 100% entering the next Harold jam, even if it's a five minute game where Harold folds his clothes or something.

What did you most like/dislike about the jam?

Liked: The excuse to make as many silly Harold-centric games my heart desired. The lack of submission limitations meant I felt the freedom to venture beyond the familiar bounds of MV & MZ. I may have only had time to create a VX Ace project, but I had started on a Pixel Game Maker project and had plans for at least a Gdevelop game too. Perhaps I will have better luck/skill next year.

Disliked: The themes, oddly enough. I found them rather limiting. Like, I would have a crazy thing for Harold to do, but then I went back to the themes and struggled to shoehorn them in. I know you said they aren't a big deal, but experience tells me that the general public is not nearly as forgiving and understanding.

Where did you hear about the jam?

The Beta Testers Discord server, of course! I was looking forward to this ever since the first one - I felt I could do better than Hrld Qst, especially now that I have another full year's worth of jamming and devving experience under my belt! I followed the development of the jam and did my best to promote it in the weeks leading up to the event.

 What inspired you to join/submit?

You know me: it's a game jam, need I say more? 😉 In case you do, Harold has become a lovable doofus ripe for comedic antics. That, combined with no limit to the number of entries, allowed my imagination run wild and try some things out that I had been wanting to explore along with participating in what could be considered the most successful group project I've ever been a part of.

If you didn't join/didn't submit, what was the barrier?

I'm going to use this section to speak to the games that didn't see the light of day. It largely had to do with time: Although I had more free time than originally anticipated, I still didn't have as much time as I would have liked. This was also a 3-week jam as opposed to the 4-week and month-long jams I have been participating in, so having one less week to develop meant I had one less week to explore, experiment, and adjust. This ultimately meant I had to make a choice: make 1 game in an unfamiliar engine, or make several in more familiar engines.

Another factor was, well, time, but in a different way: I didn't realize how long some of my ideas would take to fully develop (particularly Sand Trap) and how much of a time commitment Harold: Origins would be, so even some short silly games planned for MV & MZ didn't even get off the ground due to running out of time. In this case, the world is no worse off for it; they were supposed to just be short silly things that poked fun at low-effort games much like BG's entry.

Future theme suggestions?

Themes that emphasize Harold silliness. Perhaps encouraging people to put their own spins on now-classic Harold games, such as making your own "Harold In The" game (be it in title or in presentation)? Now ideas are flooding in in an unordered mess, so I'm going to list them in bullets as they come to mind:

• Boulder
• Boulder Puzzle (must have 1 puzzle may or may not featuring boulders)
• Spinning in place
• MV (as main theme instead of sub-theme)
• Reid (make what you will of that)
• Riff off Studio Blue's last jam theme by making a name, a place, and a dialog line required
• Poorly-drawn art (make your own version of Hrld)
• Asset flip
• Box map
• Only Sane Man (Harold or some other character is this)
• Oldhar or Face-Heel Turn (making a normally heroic character a villain)
• Worst idea ever

Or no theme at all besides including Harold somewhere in the game. As I've said earlier, I found the themes rather limiting in this jam and would like to have even more flexibility and freedom to explore all kinds of random and silly ideas featuring our favorite red-haired himbo.

 Do you have any assets you'd like to make available to the community for next year?

I actually tried to make some more Harold-themed art before the jam began but nothing came together. If I manage to find some spare time to whip something up, I'll let you know.

Any other thoughts or suggestions?

Reid Jam? 😛As if I need yet another jam to participate in...

Keep the unlimited entry aspect for future jams (especially since there will be less of an emphasis on prizes).

Making this an annual jam is a good idea; I'm seeing a bunch of burnout (myself included) with the Magical Girl Game Jam, and that's just been a twice-a-year thing. Annual means it's still predictable while not demanding too much from participants.

Maybe get rid of the XP gate for the Submissions queue in the Discord server? Something to further facilitate people testing their entries before submission.

Have some volunteers who are "designated testers" (and maybe also judges?) who will test any entries before submission. 🤔 I know that's a half-thought-out idea, but what if we tweaked it into something workable?

I really enjoy this jam and plan on returning next year if it happens.

What did you most like/dislike about the jam?

Overall, I really enjoying this game jam. I always wanted to try making a game (and even though I wasn't able to complete it on time), it got me motivated to continue working on the game overall. The community is very supportive and I really liked to play and interact with the other game devs.  Everyone have a unique twist and style on their ideas and alliterations of  Harold.

I'm not a huge fan of the rating system (as some categories like the Harold one was a bit difficult to judge). 

Where did you hear about the jam?

I found it coincidentally on itch.io when looking for a first game jam to try out. Actually, I found out about Harold's Last Stand game jam  from months ago when looking through the  rpg maker forums and saw how the community had a blast in using the default characters for the engine.  I was slightly bummed for missing out on that but then got excited when I found out the game jam was returning. With Theme 6 blasting.

What inspired you to join/submit?

I always wanted to try out making a game (and also had the RPG makers I got that were laying out in the dust on steam for years). I always like learning new things and pushing myself to the limits, and this one had a fun idea of using any version or interpretation of a character and bring that character to life.

Future theme suggestions?

(Oh, you betcha I have a lot of ideas)

• In Media Res 
• The Power of Friendship
• Plot twist
• Sequence breaking
• Role Reversal
• Breaking the 4th Wall
• New Game+
• Subverted Expectations
• Progress will make you weaker.
• Deja Vu/Time Loop
• Silent Protagonist
• The road to hell is paved with good intentions
• Uncanny Valley
• Unreliable Narrator
• Amnesia
• One of your party is a imposter traitor
• Hero & Villain Team-up
• A Game within a Game
• Turning a bug into a feature
• Mid-Game Genre Shift 
• Isekai
• Playing the game backwards.
• Body Swap
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass
• Chekhov's Gun
• Remakes
• Diabolus ex Machina
• Cheat to Win
• You only live once.
• A RPG game that should not be an RPG.
• Add a rule, remove a rule.
• Past vs. future

Do you have any assets you'd like to make available to the community for next year?

I may plan in the future to make art alternative versions (by the rpg maker MV default hero characters) for others who may wish to use other game engines instead for next year. 

Any other thoughts or suggestions?

I had a blast working and hope there will be a next year Harold Game Jam. 

Thanks so much for the feedback everyone, especially the critical notes on the themes and the rating system. These are total blindspots for me, but they seem to be a common problem, so I will definitely seek to address these in future jams. I'll be reviewing all the notes here before I make another jam, so thank you all and feel free to post anything else you think of!

I enjoyed playing the jam games tremendously and was amazed by the turnout. It's pretty evident that the affection for Harold runs really deep in a lot of the community and that showed in the entries.

- What did you most like/dislike about the jam?
The variety of game engines, styles, and themes was impressive, from platformers to horror to kart-racing games, and of course a bunch of RPGs. (oh and a flying game) Many entries showed tons of ingenuity in systems, presentation, and/or story.

- Where did you hear about the jam?
RPG Beta Testers server

- What inspired you to join/submit?
I originally joined and had a couple ideas which I wanted to explore, then unfortunately had to drop due to work conflicts. On the last day of the jam a few other folks had to drop out which deflated the entry stats, so I was compelled to put something together at the last minute. It wasn't a great submission but I got in done in 3 hours and along with a few other stragglers I think we ended the submission period with a full head of steam.

- If you didn't join/didn't submit, what was the barrier?
(Still answering this since I didn't submit the entry I had originally planned to.) Just "real life" time constraints - nothing related to the jam rules or themes.

- Future theme suggestions?
Is the Dark Lord really Harold's nemesis? or... something else.

- Do you have any assets you'd like to make available to the community for next year?
Not at this time, sadly. Maybe next year?

- Any other thoughts or suggestions?
I think the only thing I'd change, besides rotating out themes to keep it fresh, would be the rating system. It was tricky to pin down which aspects met which criteria, so I just tried my best to be internally consistent (for me it was more about providing feedback and exploring ideas than ratings, but it's still a detail to work on).

First of all, Human, thanks for organizing the jam. I had a great time!

-What did you most like/dislike about the jam?
Likes: Allowing short games. After Touch The Stars jam, I was a bit tired, so knowing I could make a silly 5 minutes game and still be eligible for this jam, was great.

Dislikes: The main themes. I'm not sure whether I posted about it in the server (I definitely mentioned it on the forum), but I had to change my idea several times, because at first I had ignored the main themes and then later on I couldn't get the theme I'd picked to work. I had no problem with the subthemes though.

On that note, it felt a bit weird to not have a voting category for the themes?

- Where did you hear about the jam?
I heard of the first jam's existence on the forum and heard of this one after joining the Beta Test Server.

- What inspired you to join/submit?
Everyone in the server was so excited for this and since I left the Touch the Stars jam relatively unscathed, I wanted to join in on the fun.

- Future theme suggestions?
I like the themes suggested above by the others. Only suggestion I have is "(Relation)Ships". You mentioned this on the server once and I was sad to see it not included as a (sub)theme.

- Do you have any assets you'd like to make available to the community for next year?
I'm working on some stuff for the Halloween Restaff, which will include a Harold sprite. Hopefully. Still need to work on it. (Reid's sprite is done though :D) Oh also, I've been thinking of making some of the later RTP cast into XP sprites.

- Any other thoughts or suggestions?
Reid jam pretty please? Or like a joint jam where we can pick whether Harold or Reid is the focus?

Oh goodie, I never could resist a proper feedback list so here goes!

What did you most like/dislike about the jam?

Like:

• Harold.
• All the Harold.
• The generous timeframe to create a game, which I of course squandered most of so I still ended up in crunch time mode.
• The more casual, sillier laid-back nature of the content.
• The folks who participated. Hadn’t met this group before, but you’re a pretty likeable bunch.
• The game length in terms of actually being able to play and rate every entry.

Dislike:

• The game length. Hey, wait a minute! While it was great for rating the games, it sucked for actually making them. I wanted to make something even longer, but I found myself cutting content and still going over the 45 minute mark, and I really didn’t have that much to begin with.
• The fact that quick, quirky, weird, and ultimately easy games seemed to have done better than something designed to be hard. I suppose that’s just a lesson learned though.

Where did you hear about the jam? Random forum post I happened across on the official forums.

What inspired you to join/submit?

I was aware of the Harold jam that happened last year and hated that I missed it, so I wanted to give this one a go. Harold made me do it.

If you didn’t join/didn’t submit, what was the barrier? N/A

Future theme suggestions?

I don’t really have any, other than continued excuses for Harold to kick some jealous Reid ass. I like surprises! (well, surprises like jam themes, anyway)

Do you have any assets you’d like to make available to the community for next year?

Nothing that isn’t already out there in some form or another, except my plugins. Eventually, all the plugins used for my game will be vailable as a 100% free VS alternative, but that’s not really a Harold jam specific set of resources.

Any other thoughts or suggestions?

Another Harold jam next year. It needs to be done!

Where did you hear about the jam?
I was in it last year and knew it was coming.

What inspired you to join/submit?
I'm all about the jams and Harold is pretty cool. Plus wanted to make a sequel to my entry from last year(10th place baby)

If you didn't join/didn't submit, what was the barrier?
n/a

Future theme suggestions?

Harold Sports/Olympics
Harold Racing(I know this was a game this year, but imagine 34 people's unique take on the concept)

Harold: Year One(not origin, but sometime in the first year of his questing)

Harold Superheroes

Harold Freaky Friday(Harold switches bodies with other people)

Do you have any assets you'd like to make available to the community for next year?

I already made them available, but there could be more coming. 

 Any other thoughts or suggestions?

Change Harold voting category. This one is hard to gauge. Everyone has a different interpretation of Harold, so there is nothing to base it on. Fun and Creativity are subjective as well, but there is at least a consensus what is Fun and Creative. 

FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED BAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME!

-What did you most like/dislike about the jam?

I liked the chance to learn how to make a game with peer feedback and honest critique. I struggled to pick themes. I disliked the fact that my game crashed and I had to do 4 days worth of catch up in one evening, but that's not the Jams fault.

- Where did you hear about the jam?

Discord: /r/RPGMaker

- What inspired you to join/submit?
I had been wanting to make a game for weeks, tried in XP had my game files crash repeatedly, and found my self directionless and, while still wanting to make a game, uninspired. The jam helped me to refocus my efforts to finally make a 'minimal viable product' to help me learn the process.

- If you didn't join/didn't submit, what was the barrier?

Game crashed, I didn't make it in time. And it multiple game backups that failed at once. It still baffles me!

- Future theme suggestions?

I'd like to see a more granular and well defined set of judging criteria. My suggestions are as follows:
Immersion, execution of game mechanics, narrative, unique/quirk factor, advertising* ...

*This would be for things like description and cover art.

- Do you have any assets you'd like to make available to the community for next year?

Not yet, but I plan on editing the MV tile sets to be less trash on placement. Should I get any of them done I will freely share with everyone!

- Any other thoughts or suggestions?

I would like to see more versions of the idea of Harold pushed. The "short attention span' part of the rating system for this jam limited that Harold was not the sharpest tool in the box. While this worked fine for everyone who wanted to default to "HAR HAR FUNNY GAME!" it did not inspire much variety. I feel that stifled creativity and exploration of different kinds of expressed Harolds.
It started to feel like Harold was just a Team 4 Start Goku reskin. The games were fun, but the character got old pretty fast.
And sadly, based on the wording of the judging criteria of 'short attention span' most Harolds were accurate to the detriment.
I know it meant "With in the time frame" and wasn't supposed to limit Harold's intelligence, but people don't naturally think in those terms.

And that's my two whole cents! Hope it helps.

EDIT: After reading other reviews I realize I mixed up THEME IDEAS with JUDGING CRITERIA.
I am a noob.
SOME THEME IDEAS:

• Menu Madness
• Harold VS Harold
  Harold finds Love
• Dark Secretes
• Misbeliefs
• Fear/Terror
• Food

As the first game jam that I have actually submitted a game in, this was a lot of fun.

- What did you most like/dislike about the jam?
What I liked most was seeing some of the creative things that everyone else did with their games.
For someone who likes trying to make games, I don't actually play many (indie or commercial).  So playing all of the entries was an enjoyable experience.

I don't think there was anything I disliked about it.

- Where did you hear about the jam?
Announcement on the Studio Blue Discord

- What inspired you to join/submit?
Actually managing to finish something I thought was worth sharing.
It helped that reading the themes for it triggered the idea for the storyline almost immediately, so instead of trying to force a story into being, I had time to actually enjoy making the game.

- If you didn't join/didn't submit, what was the barrier?
NA since I did submit, but in past jam attempts it has always been inability to create/complete a cohesive storyline.

- Future theme suggestions?
So many good ones have already been posted, I don't think I could add anything new or unique to it.

- Do you have any assets you'd like to make available to the community for next year?
Unfortunately no - any custom assets I created would be worse than stick people drawn by a one year old.