Hello fellow devs!

Metroidvanias. A popular game genre among indie devs (you probably know Hollow Knight, Ori or Axiom Verge) based on Super Metroid and Castlevania in which you explore the map to find upgrades.

In this game jam, I challenge you to make a Metroidvania game in a month! If you still have no idea what I'm talking about, you can check what is a metroidvania.

 Our COOL Vania partners

🔶Azecy

🔶Jasontomlee | Learn To Jam

🔶Anchorpoint

   Rules

1. Assets should all be made during the jam period. General purpose code, designing, bases and models, placeholders, and story can be made before the start of the jam. Here's clarification.

2. External assets can be used if you have the rights to and leave credit to the author when submitting in the "External assets" field when required. Of course, the assets you choose don't have to be made during the jam. The use of AI falls into that category, mention it in the same field.

3. Incomplete games are accepted, so don't be anxious making a complete game! But your submission should be playable. If you're not quite satisfied with your game, or you missed the deadline, or you simply want to continue working on your entry, check out Super MVM!

4. Teaming is accepted and there is no maximum team members.

5. You are free to use any engine and tools you want, and none is encouraged over any other.

6. The game needs to have a PG-13 rating or below. To be clear: no nudity, excessive swearing, no gore (for the subtleties of that one, refer yourself to these two posts: Post 1 and Post 2)

7. Your game should be free! You understand that selling it will cut out your ratings. You can put it on a sale for the duration of the rating period and set it back to its normal price after that.

8. I'm accepting late entries until 24 hours after the end of the submission period. In order to submit late, first publish your game to itch, and then send me the link, either on Discord or in the Community tab. Uploads will also be unlocked, so if you have a bug fix to publish, do it during this time!

9. Your game must follow the theme! The theme is mandatory this time around! If it obviously doesn't, your game can get disqualied. Don't forget the other participants will also rate your game based on this criteria!

Don't know how to get started? You can read this blog post by yumaikas for useful tips and visit this collection of previous jam winners!

Themes:

Time | Echoes of the Past | Rebirth | Nurture | Classic

Voted on one week before the start of the jam. Themes are announced on start. You need to write the theme you picked in the appropriate field when submitting. You can choose many, as long as they are all followed.

   Rating 

Games will be rated on these criteria:

★ Enjoyment

 Was the game fun? Would you keep playing it? This criteria is highly subjective and mostly based on the feels you got.

★ Execution

 Refers to how the game's concepts were put together. Did it have any bugs? Was the idea original and creative? If there was worldbuilding and narrative, how well was it implemented? Was the map and level design remarkable?

★ Sensory

 How the game appealed to your eyes and ears, mainly using the visuals and audio. Were those components consistent and did they blend with each other? Atmosphere can also be considered.

★ Metroidvania

 Does this game belong in this jam? Was the Metroidvania aspect subtle or could you clearly say it was one? If you're not sure, you can check the page linked at the top.

★ Relevance to the theme picked

 To what extent did the game follow the theme it settled on? Was it obvious? Was the integration done in a creative or interesting way?

  Prizes!! 

Jasontomlee offers:

🔶1st & 2nd Place:  1 Asset Pack on their page! 

Sharing your submission on the MVM and the LearnIndie Discords is encouraged!

Anchorpoint offers:

🔶1st Place: Yearly licenses for the winners

Instead of bumping the files to a Google Drive, use version control. Anchorpoint provides free usage of their Git based version control application trough the Jam. Here is a 5 minute tutorial on how to use it with Azure DevOps (an alternative to GitHub). 

Download Anchorpoint and submit your email (that you used on login) to support@anchorpoint.app. You will get a trail version for 2 months to finish your game.

Azecy offers:

🔶1st Place: One game in their wide catalog!

Winners will also get a role in the Discord server and a screenshot of their game behind the page!

Everyone who submitted or contributed to a submission is able to rate. If you didn't, you can still leave a comment, every feedback is appreciated! Results are out two weeks after the end of the submission period.

Special thanks to Zahran Worrell for the banner and all the design tips and help!

Join the Discord server! A friendly and cozy community that can help you with gamedev, provide feedback, and play your games! The place to go to make teams (special mention to artists, which are pretty rare on the server). The server is pretty extensive, letting you share your work in all kinds of domains and discuss media. It's also the place to go for announcements, as it's the main source of information. Opened to everyone!

Hope to see you participate and I'm looking forward to what you'll make!

Previous jam

Super edition