ANNOUNCEMENT: The time for this jam has been extended by a couple of days. The due date for the jam will now be on Tuesday (6/15) @ 12PM PST. I want to give you all the best amount of time to finish your games, and allow those to have some extra time to make something if they would like!

This was also my first jam to test things out and see how they would go, so sometimes things aren't perfect first try!

Hello, and welcome to the StraightUpGameJam, hosted by yours truly, StraightUpGruntled! This is a new, biannual Game Jam that is here to foster creativity, wonderful ideas, and an amazing community. This is an ranked game jam, but with a focus on feedback, meaning it is a way for the community to come together, make games, and share them with others, through the use of a theme and limitation. Join this jam if you are itching to create a game and you want that challenge of a limitation that will help you make something amazing!

The theme for the jam has been announced! Over the course of the week long jam, you will have to create a game that pertains to this theme, which can be interpreted in anyway you would like.

Include a Mechanic, Idea, or Item into your games idea that is unexpected and goes against the players expectations!

I have announced an additional flavor that you can sprinkle on top of your theme. This is an extra constraint that will force you to slightly change your game idea that you come up with the first day of the jam. It's completely optional, but those who sprinkle the extra flavor will be able to gain a more points under the Theme category of ratings.

1. If you are able to, please post a web build of your game at the end of the jam, so that it is easier to play everyone's games on my playtesting stream at the end of the jam. It also is a much safer way of being able to attain and play games. (If you absolutely can't get this to work, you can always post a download, but just note some people may not be willing to take the risk.)

2. There is no limit to size of teams for this jam. Anybody can participate with any sized team.

3. No NSFW games or material will be tolerated in this jam. If any of it shows up, you will be unable to submit any more submissions for this jam.

4. When using the community tab or the discord channel to create a team or discuss the jam, be kind, curious, and respectful to other people when responding to others.

5. You must play and rate as many games as you are able to during the rating period of the jam. This will be elaborated more in the ratings section below.

This jam is ranked for the sole purpose of encouraging those participating to play and rate other peoples games. Feedback is a super important thing in game development, so I would like to stress that in order to be ranked, you must play at least one other game in from the jam. However, it is encouraged to play as many games from the submissions as possible. (Don't expect feedback unless you give it to others.)

The jam will be rated by five elements of criteria!

Theme: How well does the game use the jam's theme? Did they use the flavor?

Game Design: How fun and intriguing was the game's major and minor mechanics?

Audio: How well produced was the music and sfx? Did the game include any music?

Visuals: How visually pleasing and smooth are the visuals and animation?

Creativity: How creative and outside of the box was the game's audio, visual, or design aspects?

The point of this jam is not to create a fully polished game. The goal is to have a fun time producing a really solid game concept in a short amount of time. DO NOT include bugs or issues into your bias for the ratings, unless it effects any of the above categories in a major way. If you find any bugs for a game, let the developer know as constructive feedback under their games jam page!

If you are interested in joining the discord server to receive announcements about the jam, team up with others, or just to join my community the link will be below. Also, if you are interested in checking out anything I do, all of my links will be listed below. :D

Discord: https://discord.gg/ht4ZWQzbG7

Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/straightupgruntled

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SGruntled

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIzce-d35l1aVbZpDM8jNYQ