I was going through the rules of the jam when I saw :
I watched a bit of the video but didn't quite understand it. Could someone please elaborate briefly?
It's your work and it's good to own that and also it helps get your name out there if you want to dive further in to Game Development as a career specifically.
There's other reasons as that long talk by Foddy and Gage goes through but that's the main gist.
EDIT: Top comment on the video exemplifies this fairly well.
"I literally clicked this video because i knew who Bennett Foddy was thanks to Getting over it... So it really does humanize the game devs in a special way and makes the users care about the devs."
Beslan covered this very nicely, but for a bit of background, I added this rule because it's shocking how many games get submitted without any sort of author credit.
If there's a download version of your game and I decide to boot it up any time in the future, I won't have the game page to tell me who made it. So it's important that the game tells me, whether it's your actual name or a handle. Then if I enjoy it, I can look you up and find more recent projects or other things you're working on.
On the more sinister side, it's almost impossible to prevent others from hosting your game on another website without credit. If you put your name in the game, it's much more difficult to remove that credit.
I strongly urge you or others among the jam leadership to make this more clear on the jam's main page. Preferably on the same line as the requirement itself, not buried in the FAQ section that shockingly few participants seem to read. If I hadn't read this post myself I would have been under the impression that a real identity was required to be linked to the submission.
The talk you guys linked to makes a lot of salient points, but one of the most important points it makes is around the 5:30 mark - if you have any reason to stay anonymous you should. That gets glossed over fairly quickly, but it's a deeply important point. Especially since you will likely have children (13 or older, yes, but still children) submitting - people who are even less likely to give the requirement a second thought.
Regardless of your age, all it takes is one horrible person on the internet - one person who took offense to a review you left their game, or drew issue with some other game hosted on your Itch page they found after taking an interest in your work, whatever - to make life for you and your family incredibly unsafe, or at the very least quite unpleasant on and offline.
Basic internet safety, especially when kids are involved, should be a given. If you're encouraging behavior that challenges that safety, even inadvertently, I hope you and the rest of the jam officials will consider taking steps to change that.
I'm sorry for the wall of text. I have a few younger friends who are planning to become participants and wanted to reach out.
Thank you for your time, and good luck with your jam! (Also great job with the theme!)
Rule as been edited
