The game jam runs from right now to 31 Jan. You can start making the game anytime, but you can only submit it from 1 Jan to 31 Jan.

Player review phase is from 1 Feb to 10 Feb. Please play and comment on as many as you can!

The theme is...

LOVE ♥

You don't really need to follow the theme. (The theme is actually not part of the ranking criteria.) This is just to help point you in a specific direction if you can't think of any ideas. Speaking of ideas, here are some ways you can interpret this theme:

♥ Love can be romantic, platonic, obsessive, non-existent, imagined, discovered, buried, destroyed etc.

♥ Love can be for your pets, your waifu, a specific item (such as megane) or even...a certain VTuber?

♥ Love is war, but baby don't hurt me, no more

♥ LÖVE is a game engine, so any game made in that engine technically fits the theme!

♥ If you love making games, or you love your game, that counts!

♥ Love in Japanese is "Ai" so your game can be about Kizuna Ai, or AI taking over the world.

♥ Love is kind of related to the heart, so a game about ripping out people's hearts and eating them...? Close enough.

Requirements:

♠ The game must be playable on web! You can include a downloadable exe as well, but I will play all the games on a browser.

♠ So that everyone can enjoy it, the game should be free. You can enable donations, but the game should not be locked behind a paywall.

♠ No NSFW allowed.

♠ You must play and comment on at least 2 other entries during the ranking phase. [number might change depending on submissions, but generally i encourage you to play as many as possible!]

Notes:

♦ The game does not need to be related to virtualharby in any way, shape or form.

♦ You are allowed to use graphics, music, SFX etc made by other people. Just make sure you have the correct permissions and have properly credited them.

♦ You are allowed to use some AI-generated material, but AI should be an assistant, not the lead designer.

♦ The games are ranked by two things:

    ♦ Fun - how enjoyable the game is to play. This doesn't mean your game has to be light-hearted, I'm just bad at naming categories.

    ♦ Polish - how completed the game feels. This can be helped by having consistent graphics, smooth gameplay, responsive UI, sound effects etc.

Resources for beginners

If you are a new game dev, here are some resources to help you out!

♣ My livestream of Game Dev 101 (warning, not very educational) - Class notes here

♣ RenPy- Free engine for making a visual novel, no coding knowledge required.

♣ RPG Maker - Excellent engine for making RPGs. Paid, but there is a 30-day free trial.