I get that you are supposed to be limited to the included assets and you can recolor them and stuff, but as far as writing code goes... It says there are "a FEW well coded routines" but I'm not totally clear on whether or not writing entirely new code is allowed (for hard mode, I understand it's fine in easy mod as long as you use the included routines) or if you are strictly limited to copying and pasting the included routines around to fit your needs.

In short I just don't understand the limitations on actually writing code for this jam.

The idea is that you code your own game, the only real limitations are using the assets provided.  If you want to borrow any of those routines to use, feel free, but you are mean to have a "blank slate" of code to fill with a game.

I will try to make that more clear in the instructions!