Welcome to Tazmen Side Jam #1
This is the first ever Tazmen Side Jam. For those of you who don't already know, on the last weekend of every month I host the monthly Tazmen Jams which have cash prizes and special discord roles for winners. These Tazmen Jams are always open to all engines and always have the same ruleset. The only thing that changes each month is the prize pool and the theme which is voted on by jam participants. Tazmen Side Jams on the other hand are extra jams that take place in between these monthly Tazmen Jams. They are sometimes planned in advance and sometimes held on a whim. These jams are usually more restrictive and will always have different rulesets. Sometimes they will be engine exclusive to encourage devs to try out new engines and other times they will be open to all engines but have other restrictive rules. If you are interested in learning a little more about what Tazmen Jams and Tazmen Side Jams are you can find some more information in the community discord server.
Join the community discord server here: https://discord.gg/SbR2zce
For the first Tazmen Side Jam I've decided to take an idea from a game dev who goes by Miziziziz on Youtube. He has a series where he gets 4 devs together to jam off of the same art kit. I am in love with this series and would highly recommend you check it out if you haven't. Here is one of the videos from the series:
The rules won't be the exact same as his rules because we're going to have more than 48 hours to make our game but overall it's the same idea.
Rules:
- You must use the art kit provided for your game's visuals but you're free to be creative with how you use it. Shaders, particles, cropping, tinting, etc... are all fine. Just make it obvious that your art assets are from the kit.
- You can use any public domain/copyright free music, sfx, and fonts (or make your own).
- You can compete solo or with a team but please disclose this information to be judged accordingly. There is no size limit for your team and you may join the discord if you're in need of a partner.
- Any game engine can be used. Unity, Godot, Unreal, even a custom engine if you want. There are no restrictions regarding engines whatsoever.
Prizes:
There will be no cash prizes for this jam. Unlike the monthly jams, these side jams will only occasionally have prizes and they will not always be cash prizes. The prizes could be a game, an engine, assets, or anything else that seems reasonable for the jam. For this jam the only prize will be the 'Jam Winner' role in the community discord server. This role will give you access to an exclusive text chat and voice chat channel strictly for winners of Tazmen Jams and Tazmen Side Jams.
Art Kit:
The art kit we're using for the jam is: https://www.kenney.nl/assets/scribble-platformer
Submissions:
The art kit will be announced and the jam will start Friday October 2nd 2020 at 11:59pm AST. The submissions close and the jam ends Friday October 9th 2020 at 11:59pm AST. The voting period will begin as soon as the jam ends and you all are responsible for playing and rating the submitted games. Please try to play and rate as many as possible and give constructive feedback as that's the best part of game jams. Voting will end Monday October 12th 2020 at 11:59pm AST.
Criteria:
Unlike the monthly jams, the criteria for these side jams will be different every time.
The games for this jam will be rated on:
Mechanic(s) (Are your game mechanic(s) interesting? Are they fun? Are they well implemented?)
Music (Does your game have good music? Does it fit the game? Is it unique?)
Sounds Effects (How good are your sound effects? Are they satisfying? Do they fulfill their purpose?)
Feedback (Does your game have good feedback for the player? Can the player understand what is happening? Do enemies flash when damaged?)
Asset Use (Does your game use the assets creatively? Does it use them well? Is it obvious you used the asset pack for your visuals?)
Overall (How good is the game overall? Is the game fun? Is it well made?)
The winner of the Overall category will be crowned the winner of the jam. The other categories are mostly for bragging rights or just to find out what you did well and what you could improve on.
Conclusion:
I hope you're all excited to try something a little more restrictive than usual and I hope to continue doing these side jams at least semi frequently. Please try to be creative with your use of the art kit. It's boring to take a dungeon crawling art kit and make a typical dungeon crawler but it's much more interesting to notice that a piece of the art kit could be combined with another piece to make something completely new and to create a different genre of game from what the art kit is meant for. I'm looking forward to seeing all the creative things people do with the assets and If you've read this far I hope you've decided to join. If you have any questions at all please don't hesitate to contact me via Discord or Itch.io (You will likely get a faster reply via Discord). Lastly, if you're unavailable for this jam please make sure to join the discord so you can participate in the next one. Thanks for reading everything and considering joining the jam :)