Feature art by Sephir Art

Once upon a time, a game jam was held to create stories around the theme of fairy tales…

“Once Upon A Time VN Jam” is a three-month game jam running from October 1st, 2023 00:00 (UTC+2) to January 3rd, 2024 (UTC+1) held to create fairy-tale-themed narrative stories.

What is a fairy-tale-themed story?

That is a good question and I’m glad you asked! To put it shortly: any story linked to a fairy tale. To give further details:

– creating a story using the codes or the themes of fairy tales (structure, characteristic characters like princesses, knights, dragons, witches, ogres…) – basically, creating your own fairy tale ;
– rewriting of classical fairy tales: these rewritings can be a fairy tale story inspired from a classical fairy tale, a part of an already-existing tale you choose to develop, a parody, a modern rewriting: in that case the connections between the tale and your story have to be obvious (events, or references…) ;
– even “meta”-stories (stories focusing on fairy tales as a concept or a medium) are accepted ;
– you don’t have to limit yourself to occidental tales: you can explore some other folk tales as long as they are somewhat equivalent to what we call “fairy tales” in Western literature (for instance, 1001 Arabian Nights are totally appropriate for this jam! And we’d love to discover more stories.);
- nonetheless, please note that stories inspired by mythologies are not included in this jam, as they used to constitute beliefs, while fairy tales are undoubtedly fictional.

Rules

– Since the jam is named “Once Upon A Time VN Jam”, the entries are primarily expected to be visual novels or interactive fictions.

– Nonetheless, other types of games can be submitted if they have a significant narrative portion (at least half of the game).

– The game you submit to the jam has to be released or to receive a SIGNIFICANT NARRATIVE update during the jam (for instance, if your update just fixes a bug or some typos, you are not allowed to submit it; if your update involves new scenes or full-rewriting of existing scenes, you are allowed to submit it).

– You can start working on the game before the start of the jam.

– Incomplete entries (demos, v-slices, whatever floats your boat) are accepted and encouraged.

– Yet, you are not allowed to submit your project to the jam before uploading a playable build on Itch (having created the game page isn't sufficient).

– You can work as a team (obviously), but if so, make sure everyone receives proper credit.

– You can also work as a solo dev.

– You can create your own assets from scratch or collect assets online. If so, make sure to abide by the creator’s licensing.

– Nonetheless, the use of any AI-generated asset is forbidden, even if you own the training data. So, if you collect assets online, make sure they are not AI-generated (hint: if you get 60+ backgrounds for free, red flag)

– You may submit your game to other game jams, if their rules allow it and if your game is in theme with all the jams you’re submitting the game to.

– You may submit more than one entry to this game jam.

– NSFW projects are allowed, as long as they are indicated as such.

– If your game involves triggering content, you must tag it appropriately.

– Entries promoting bigotry or discriminations of any sort (LGBTQ+-phobia, racism, sexism etc.) are prohibited and will be removed.

– Your project can be free or commercial, at your own convenience, unless it is a fan game: all commercial fan games will be removed.

– All entries which don’t respect these rules will be removed.

On the complicated distinction between fairy tale and fantasy

Now, a question you may have regarding some projects is the following: is my project fairy tale or fantasy? It is true that it is complicated to establish a clear distinction between both, and we don’t have a perfect answer to give! For the spirit of this game jam, have in mind that we won’t regard the distinction too strictly: if your project is standard fantasy, it fits!

So, if you started developing a fantasy project, you’re good and you can submit it to the jam. But if you want to create a project specifically for this jam and want it to be fairy tale-themed, maybe you can try to take some of the following elements in consideration:

– Fantasy stories usually put a lot of emphasis on the world building, as the point is to transport the reader in a whole new world; fairy tales tend to be in some sort of blurry medieval times with magic elements in it;
– Fantasy stories usually focus on the learning journey of the main character, and the whole point is to make this character grow and become a hero; fairy tales focus on having morals;
– Fairy tales are less lengthy than fantasy stories as they were originally orally told before some writers (Perrault in France or the Brothers Grimm in Germany) decided to write them down. In comparison, fantasy is originally a genre meant to be read (before being imported into cinema etc.).

To give you an example of this distinction: a game like Actala – The Hero’s Shadow by Chattercap would be considered fantasy (but would still fit the jam); a game like Under The Stars by helen would be considered a fairy tale.

But, as you can tell, these considerations are restrictive: according to them, for example, Alice in Wonderland isn’t a fairy tale which, technically, isn’t false, but let’s be honest: the story still feels fairy tale-like. This is what matters in the end, so don’t let the theme bridle your creativity and have fun!

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