i haven't ever done a game jam, so i could just be dumb, but of the 8 submissions so far, 3 of them seem to be from waaay before the jam starts. I was under the impression that you started when the theme released, and it confuses me that there are games from before it. (this isn't to diss the games, they all look good, I am just unsure about how this all works)

Yeah that seems kind of strange, hopefully if they were actually uploaded before the jam started then the owner will remove those submissions

yes, one of them was from 17 days ago. seemed odd.

they seemed to have been spammed across many jams, probbably in an attempt for someone to not notice that they were entered shortly after the window opened. I wouldve played the games too, they seemed good, but if they are just spamming them for attention, I have lost respect for them

There are even bigger games indeed that you can see on youtube channels as having been worked on for 6 months + now. It's my first Jam too and it's interesting to see the dynamics at play :)