The Search for the Truth Jam is a Game Jam to celebrate Ace Attorney and our appreciation of the series as a whole! It’s a show of the love of the feeling Ace Attorney gives us, pushing through lies to find a deeper truth.

Gist of the Jam:

Search for the Truth is a game jam hosted by Court-Records, Ace Attorney Online, and the Partnered Ace Attorney Discord Server collaboratively! It's made out of a fandom love for Ace Attorney and how it inspires our mysteries and adventures.

SftT is open to both games INSPIRED by Ace Attorney and fangames! Fangames, while not allowed on Itch.io, will be viewed as acceptable entries, and you’ll be allowed to showcase them on AAO, C-R, and the discord itself.  Original works will be posted and judged here on itch.io!

Our criteria for Ace Attorney inspired games goes roughly like this:

1.) Is Mystery, or at least has mystery elements. It doesn't have to strictly be murder mystery!

2.) Has a heavy focus on finding the truth, whether it's through mechanics or story. Ace Attorney does this by having you discredit lies with evidence. Think about how you can do that in your own way!

These rules are intentionally vague to allow for creative twists on Ace Attorney's formula. Or allowance to just make a homage to AA

What is a fangame?
A fangame in this instance is either - A.) A game that uses any Ace Attorney assets, and/or B.) Relies on the Ace Attorney universe, characters, plots, etc. at all. If you don't want to be considered a fangame, your work must use original/free-use assets, and must be stand-alone. Mechanics on their own, however, do not make your work a fangame.

The Jam will be a month long, July 1st to August 1st! That gives you roughly a month of planning, and a month of developing. You do not need to submit a finished product! Take your time, and just make something!
Just to be clear, until development starts, you are free to conceptualize and work with team members to plan your game.

If you haven’t seen it, we do have a interest survey that I’d urge you to fill out if you haven’t! If you already did, refrain from doing so again. Interest Survey!

Where does the jam take place?

Here!

Game Jam activities will be hosted on a separate discord server, as to allow focused and productive discussion and team-building. We will work on creating an environment where you can search for help, and also get feedback. You’ll encounter game devs of all kinds! Be sure to take advantage of it, and get the most out of this experience as you can. It’s character building, or something. At least that’s the excuse my dad gave me when he told me to shovel the driveway.
Same thing, really.

Who’s allowed to participate?

Everyone! … Unless you’ve been in a lot of trouble on the partnered server. If you want to join the jam server, but are banned on the partnered server, please DM me first [@lazyplague#1217] and we’ll arrange something. While I’d like to give everyone a space to work, I want to make sure everyone who joins the server is well-intended.
Along with that, if you raise a ruckus on the Jam server, we will punish you. Don’t make it harder than it needs to be.

What if I don’t like discord?

Well, you can post here about progress, make threads on AAO or CR about your prospective games I suppose, even! The itch.io page will be up eventually, so you can submit there without joining the discord. But you’ll have a far easier time finding teammates if you join the discord.

And of course, you can ask questions on here, and I’ll answer any questions I can.

Hope to see you in the server!