Banner art by @slasco_art
This time once again, we're using a participant submitted theme; 

The Theme is Dreams / Dreaming

Create a game outside of reality, embrace the power of dreams!

Dream visits to Gensokyo? Return of Mima? The possibilities are endless!

This Jam has concluded! Our winners are:

By Category:

Best Gameplay - Touhou Dream Runner
Best Concept - Renko has too much fun drawing on poor dreaming Maribel's face
Best Visuals - Koishie's Berigoo Adventure
Best Audio - Touhou Dream Runner
Best Story/Writing - Toohoo: Fish-ception!
Best Challenge - Fishy Dreams
Best Use of Theme - The Purple Heart Paradox

Overall:

5th Place - Touhou Lucid Witch
4th Place - Cirno's Perfect Punchout
3rd Place - Renko has too much fun drawing on poor dreaming Maribel's face
2nd Place - Fishy Dreams

And, our 1st Place Winner: Touhou Dream Runner

Thank you everyone who participated in the event, please hang out with us on our Twitter or Discord server for information on future events.

About the jam:

Touhou Project is a series of 2D bullet hell (or "danmaku") games from Japan that has become widely beloved due to series creator ZUN's loose policy on creating derivative works. Thanks to this, the fanbase has been able to create all sorts of interesting and high quality fanworks: including games, song covers, art, fics, and much more. We celebrate this by regularly hosting a game jam for Touhou fans to come together in friendly competition and create their own games based off the series.

We've hosted this game jam over five times before, in addition to our other community events, you can check out our past events: ( 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,  7,  (9)-Jam, PrideJam2, PrideJam3, Touhou Station, Touhou Station 2 )

If you'd like to participate (especially if you need a team), we recommend you join our Discord server: a Touhou-centric gamedev hub where you can discuss and show off Touhou fangames. The Discord has chat channels for the jam as well, including team-forming. You can also follow us on Twitter  and Tumblr for more updates and to help spread the jam!

For those unfamiliar, a game jam is a contest where participants are given a "theme" to work off of and then given a brief period of time (usually a couple days) to create a game, from scratch, based around that theme. All skill levels and areas of expertise are welcome, and members can work either in teams or individually to submit a game by the deadline.

After the contest is done, anyone interested can play the submitted games and vote on what they think are the best entries. After a period of voting, a winner will be announced. Categories to vote for include: Best Overall (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), Best Gameplay, Best Concept, Best Visuals, Best Audio, Most Challenging (for FAIR challenge), Best Writing/Story, and Best Use of Theme.

Rules (READ THESE):

• All created content must follow ZUN's guidelines on creating derivative content of Touhou. Most importantly this includes not using assets from the official Touhou games.
• You may steal/modify assets from other sources only if you are allowed to use them non-commercially. (Or are otherwise explicitly licensed to do so)
• You may use resources such as graphics, sounds and scripts that were made prior to the jam, as long as the bulk of your work takes place during and for this Jam.
• Your entry must be based off the Touhou universe to some degree.
• Your entry must be free to play at the time of submission.
• Keep it SFW.
• You can work in a team or as an individual.
• If at a later date you want to expand upon your game and sell it, you do so at your own risk and should abide by ZUN's guidelines.
• Feel free to contact us  on our Discord Server if you have any questions. Be Fabulous.

How to participate and submit a game:

• To participate, simply create an itch.io account and hit the big Join button up top. You can do so at any point before or during the jam.
• Once the jam starts, you can submit your game at any point before the deadline using the Submit button. The website will then walk you through the process of submitting your game.

FAQ

That's a pretty broad theme, where do I start?  Consider maybe using adjacent words, such as sleeping or fantasy, or leaning into Touhou's iconic dream related character Doremy and her ongoing hijinks. This is a particularly open theme, we're hoping you have some good inspiration for it.

What kind of game can I make? Any kind you want! As long as it's a fan game of Touhou, the sky is the limit. You can make a game that's gameplay-oriented or story-oriented. You can go for simple art or complex visuals. Whatever floats your creative boat.

How does my game have to relate to Touhou? As a fan game, your game is expected to borrow from the intellectual property in the Touhou series, meaning you should be including characters, locations, lore, or anything else from the from the official Touhou universe in your game. But do not steal assets from the official Touhou games themselves. You're not restricted to only characters/locations/etc. from Touhou, but it must be included and generally be the focus of your game's setting and events. Your game does NOT need to be based off any gameplay from the Touhou games themselves. Making a bullet hell game is perfectly acceptable, but by no means mandatory. You can create whatever type of game you think would be fun to play or fun to make.

Do I have to make the whole thing  myself? Nope! If you don't want to work alone you can form teams with anyone you please and take any job that suits your style. However, the game you submit must be made entirely by your team and within the jam period. I recommend picking a team with a similar timezone/sleep schedule so all of you are at least around at the same time.

Can I join multiple teams/games? I don't see why not. Voting will be on the game submissions and not the participants, so you'll technically increase your chance of being on a winning team if you offer your talents to multiple games. Just keep in mind that of course means extra work, and since this is all just for fun anyway, there's no need to overexert yourself.

I'm new to this. What can I use to make my game? You have lots of options for how to make a game. Even if you're a total beginner, game engines can make it super easy to make something playable and fun. Some of them don't even need you to write a line of code! Some popular engines include:

• Unity - Good all-purpose all-around game development engine. Has a vast array of features for both 2D and 3D games, as well as a large community with plenty of resources and tutorials. Also exports to all sorts of platforms and systems.
• GameMaker - Popular with beginners or for simple 2D or pixel games. Offers a scripting language that's easy to grasp, and even simpler drag-and-drop logic if you want to avoid writing code whatsoever.
• Godot - A free and open source engine for 2D and 3D games. Includes a visual scripting system for beginner programmers, as well as a custom scripting language and C# Mono support for those who want to dive in.
• RPG Maker - Simple to use and programming-lite engine to make RPGs or RPG-like games. Many different versions of it are available. Great if you want a game with movement and dialogue but don't want to get all technical with code and stuff. Popular choice for story-heavy games.
• Ren'Py - Popular engine for creating visual novels. Uses easy-to-learn scripting so you can create interactive stories. Similar to RPG maker in ease-of-use, except this one creates visual novels. Another popular choice for story-heavy and art-heavy games.
• Touhou Danmakufu - Relatively easy-to-use danmaku game maker using a custom scripting language. Basically only used for creating games that play just like the main Touhou games.
• Unreal Engine - Very powerful and graphically capable engine that offers a visual schematic-based programming method in addition to C++. Often used to make 3D and/or networked games that are good-looking.

If you want to use an engine such as these, I recommend you look up some tutorials and get some practice in with them before the jam starts. Just enough so that you know the basics, and once the theme is announced you can jump right into it.

What's the theme going to be?  Unlike most of our jams, we're experimenting with choosing a theme based on submissions from the community. The theme for this jam is Dreams, with the requirement to make a game that incorporates the idea of dreams in some way. How you incorporate it is up to you! 

Does my game have to follow the theme? Your game doesn't exactly need to involve the theme to be eligible, but it's highly recommended for the sake of the sport. There will be a category during voting for best use of theme. Not only that, but the theme is often a diving board for brainstorming ideas at the start of the jam. Since there are so many ideas and so many things you can make in a game, it's nice to have an idea to start with. Restriction breeds creativity!

Just four days to make a game? Any advice on how to manage this? It may seem daunting, but if you manage your time and plans well enough you can make something super fun! Here's my take:

My most important bit of advice is not to rely on making a giant, comprehensive game. For a game jam, you should focus on what the core mechanic/point is of what you're trying to make, and make that as good as you can, expanding upon it once you're satisfied with it.

Don't worry about perfecting every little thing either. If you spend half the jam time polishing a single aspect of your game, you'll likely end up not being able to reach the full potential you imagined before the deadline. Also don't be afraid to change things up midway through. You may find out one of your game mechanics is way more fun than you thought, so why not focus on that instead? Just make sure you have the time remaining to change things up.

Losing out on some sleep is common in game jams, but know that it comes at a price. If you pull an all-nighter the night before the deadline, you could very easily run out of energy before your game is ready to be submitted, so be careful. Also take breaks if you're feeling out of it. If you don't take care of yourself, you'll likely have trouble taking care of your game and delivering for your team.

And most importantly: experiment, learn things, take it easy, and have fun!