I think I already know the answer to this question, but I think it's worth asking anyway? Maybe ... ?
What if, say, there's a trans developer who spent the better part of last year working on a heartfelt, sprawling (comparatively) commercial indie game, and is now really, really, really tired but really, really needs more eyes on their game because it disappeared into the endless ocean of the itch.io annals the moment it was released, and now they can't be bother to grind out a game in 7 days of difficult labor, when they're still recovering from the burn out and commercial "failure" of their previous 7 (or so) months of difficult labor?
So my question is two fold:
1. Can we charge for our games? (As you know, our lives are precarious and our labor often undervalued).
2. Do we really have to make a brand new game over the course of 7 days just to demonstrate that we, as trans creators, are capable of producing cool things and are worthy of support? It's good to encourage new creators to come on board. But there are also tons of awesome trans game-makers who have already made tons of awesome games on the platform, and those games and makers go overlooked more often than not. Thus, if the jam is non-competitive, and if its specific aim is to showcase the work of trans developers / designers, is the standard "crunch for a week and then post a thing that may be far from indicative of what you are truly capable of" gamejam format (primarily rooted in the tradition of competitive jams) really necessary and/or most conducive to a showcase jam's stated aim?
Again, I think I know what the answer is. I know that a lot of people hold those established gamejam formats and limitations in very high regard, so obviously no worries if you're unable or unwilling to overturn the whole process just to accommodate very tired, burnt out indie developers who want to show off their stuff but are frankly not in any kind of mental condition to grind a new thing out in a week. Every jam's confines are up to the creator and the consensus of the actual participants. So, you know, much respect for doing this in the first place. Just figured I'd post this up, since accessibility in jams for marginalized peoples has been a bit of a personal bee in my bonnet for several years now.