Last year we Entered the Haroldverse and saw countless iterations of an archetypal hero. This year we explore the murkier corners of the cosmos, unsavory worlds where a cheerful himbo embraces a grim destiny, where the power of friendship gives way to the power of hatred, where fury is sparked, and the righteous come to heel. Human and the RPG Maker Beta Testers Server invite you to join Harold Jam 2022: Dark Universe.

Rules:

1. Must include the character (okay it’s Harold), a line of dialog and location announced at beginning of jam (see required elements below).
2. Following the "Dark Universe" jam theme is optional (theme is unrelated to required elements in rule 1).
3. Judging will be within 6 categories (see Judgment Categories section below)
4. Suggested time limit of 5-45 minutes, but no hard cap. 
5. Collaboration is permitted (and any number of submissions is allowed).
6. Participants are encouraged to play and rate at least 3 other entries. 
7. All game engines are allowed, although for obvious reasons. Just remember to follow the EULA for any assets you use (MV Harold assets outside of RPG Maker games is not permitted). The jam community tab includes non-Harold resources you can use outside of RPGM (and we'll all know who they are supposed to be).
8. No pre-existing games! Please do all your devving during the jam time. Pre-existing art work, animations, plugins, and other assets are permitted.
9. Custom assets are allowed, including plug-ins and art made by others as long as you credit and have the rights to use them.
10. It is recommended that games are playable on PC. Browser versions are also recommended as an option.
11. Human reserves the right to disqualify entries at his discretion.

Required Elements:

All games submitted must have all three of these within the "game content" (so not the menus or the credits):

1. Character: Harold
You can use a variation of Harold, like Harry, hrld, Oldhar, Dlorah, etc.

2. Line of Dialogue: "What have you done, Harold?"
This must be spoken by a character, exactly as printed. You can replace “Harold” with a variation as mentioned above.

3. Location: Dead End
Defined as "an end of a road or passage from which no exit is possible." The player must go there.

Judgment Categories:

There will be multiple separate and independent award categories. Participants can gear their game toward any award or combination of awards as they see fit. There is no overall winner, but six separate ones.

 - Harold Award for Excellence: Gameplay

 - Therese Award for Strength: Battles

- Lucius Award for Laughs: Laughs

- Marsha Award for Melodies: Music

- Hrld Award for Visual Arts: Graphics

- Oldhar Award for Literature: Story

Rating Queue:

We will once again be using the "Rating Queue" system first seen in 2020's GMTK! All raters will be given a random selection of three games to rate before they can rate anything else. After rating the three randomly assigned games, raters can then rate whichever games they choose.

In case of many submissions (>20) the deadline for rating may be extended accordingly.

Thanks to Leaf @ itch.io for setting this up!

Prizes:

Winners of each category will be determined by community voting, based on the criteria above. There is no overall winner, only six independent category winners.  $50 will go to the winner of one award category, selected at random. Major bragging rights to each category winner.

The original Harold graphics belong to KADOKAWA. Once again thanks to Nowis for donating the fantastic banner and character art. Give Nowis a follow on Deviant Art and Twitter as well!

Asset commissions and prizes come out of my pocket. If you want to help support the server, the jam, or me,  drop me a dollar or two! I'm probably just going to burn it on community Harold art, but if you're here, maybe you're all about that. https://www.patreon.com/RPGBetaTesters We also welcome the sponsors of Harold asset creation, prizes, and any other contributions to the community.