The jam is now over! 

The winners, picked by World of Darkness Brand Team, are: 

• First place: Heartless Lullaby
• Second place: Praxis
• Third place: Waning Crescent

We mentioned more games in our website article and announcement stream. Thank you so much for participating! 

Overview

Have you ever wanted to make your own Vampire: The Masquerade video game and share it with the world? Here’s your chance!

To celebrate the finale of Month of Darkness, we’re opening our Dark Pack Agreement for exactly 1 month to allow you to create video games using the Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition setting.

We were inspired to organize this event by Vampire Jam organized by our community members in 2019 - we played the submitted games and found many of them to be very much on brand with Vampire: The Masquerade. Today, some of that jam’s participants work on the official World of Darkness products - Santa Monica By Night’s developer joined us in our Brand Team, while the writer of Communion is now writing for Mind’s Eye Theatre - War of Ages. So it seems that bringing back the jam and making it official is a great way to bring our Month of Darkness celebration to a conclusion (and extend the fun for another month)!

This time, World of Darkness is organizing Vampire Jam officially, and offering exciting prizes for top contestants. Aside from the monetary prizes and a chance to complete your digital Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition library, we offer the winner a chance to collaborate with our Brand Team to release their game as a free title on Steam, as a part of World of Darkness franchise - next to all the officially licensed titles that already exist on the list. 

No idea how to make a game? Join us for a workshop stream hosted by Outstar on World of Darkness Twitch on Saturday, October 30th, at 6 PM CEST / 12 PM EDT / 9 AM PST. This stream will be archived as a VOD and available on YouTube. 

Rules

1. Your game must be based on Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition. The winner will be able to join our Franchise page on Steam among other 5th Edition games - hence we need you to base on the most current setting! 
2. All engines are permitted, as long as your game is playable on Windows PCs. Check the Resources section for a list of easily accessible engines! 
3. Your game must be made entirely in the duration of the game jam, although you can use free assets (check Resources section!), assets you legally obtained, artwork/music you’ve previously done, or OCs/stories you developed at your roleplaying tables. No previously started game dev projects, though! Feel free to brainstorm and look for the team to work with together (if you don't want to go solo) before the game jam starts.
4. You can work on your game solo or in a team. There’s no limit on team members in your party, just keep in mind that scoping down works best for game jams. 
5. Your game cannot use assets you have no rights to use - please don’t use assets from other VTM games, artwork you downloaded without artist’s consent, copyrighted music, etc. 
6. Your game cannot use branding, events or characters from official VTM video games. That means, unfortunately, you cannot make Bloodlines 2: My Version. Nor Bloodhunt 2. Nor Coteries of New York 2: Qadir's Secret. Sorry :(
7. Your game should have the Dark Pack Logo in the main menu or opening screen, and a note: “This game was created as a part of Vampire: The Masquerade game jam. Events portrayed in this game are not canon within World of Darkness universe”. Download Dark Pack Logo: Version 1 / Version 2
8. The game must be free, with no monetization included, and available only on itch.io. You can cover your development costs in the ways allowed by Dark Pack agreement - through Patreon, Youtube, Twitch and similar voluntary donations.  
9. This game jam is for video games only, that means you can’t submit board games, card games, TTRPG games and similar. 
10. Historical settings are welcome, but similarly to Storytellers Vault rules, please keep to “real” time periods - no science fiction, steampunk, cyberpunk or similar. 
11. After the game jam is over, your game can be hosted on itch indefinitely - but starting with December 1st, you can only update your game with translations, accessibility features and bug fixes. No content updates, expansion packs or sequels will be allowed. 
12. By entering this game jam, you agree to our contest’s Terms and Conditions.

Voting & Prizes

The top 3 contestants will be chosen by the World of Darkness Brand Team within Paradox Interactive.

1st place:

• $1000 USD
• Collaboration with the World of Darkness Brand Team and release your game as a free title on Steam, joining the official World of Darkness franchise 
• Early access to Hunter: The Reckoning - 5th Edition & Vampire: The Masquerade: Second Inquisition PDFs (when they’re ready)
• Complete digital Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition library to date, including:
  • Newest editions of Corebook, Anarch, Camarilla, Sabbat
  • Chicago by Night, Chicago Folios, Let The Streets Run Red
  • Cults of the Blood Gods, Children of the Blood, Trails of Ash and Bone, Forbidden Religions 
  • Book of Nod, New Blood Starter Pack, Fall of London, Companion 
  • Steam keys for VTM: Coteries of New York and VTM: Shadows of New York
  • Steam keys for VTM: Night Road, VTM: Out for Blood, VTM: Parliament of Knives

2nd place

• $750 USD
• Early access to Hunter: The Reckoning - 5th Edition & Vampire: The Masquerade: Second Inquisition PDFs (when they’re ready)
• Complete digital Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition library (same as 1st place)

3rd place

• $500 USD
• Early access to Hunter: The Reckoning - 5th Edition & Vampire: The Masquerade: Second Inquisition PDFs (when they’re ready)
• Complete digital Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition library (same as 1st place)

Resources

Art / visuals:

• Official V5 Art Packs
• Pexels - free library of great quality photos/videos 
• opengameart.org
  
• Free assets on Itch

Engines (examples):

• For text games: Twine, ChoiceScript, Ink by Inkle
• For visual novels: Ren'Py, TyrannoBuilder, Visual Novel Maker
• For 2D games: Unity, GameMaker Studio, Godot, RPG Maker
• For 3D games: Unity, Unreal Engine 

Music/SFX

• Free Music Archive   
• Freesound.org

FAQ

I’ve never made a game in my life, is this game jam for me?

Yes! Whether you have any experience or not, feel free to join in. Game jams are a great opportunity to learn new things and finish your project in a short time frame. 

But I don’t know how to code!

No issue. There are many game engines that don’t require you to code, or projects you can do with a minimal amount of coding that you are able to learn in the duration of the game jam. Check out Resources for more information!

I would like to participate, but I don’t feel comfortable doing it on my own. Where can I find people to team up with?

We’re opening a #vampirejam-collab room in our Dark Pack Community Discord server. Check the pinned message and look for people to collaborate with there! 

I haven’t read VTM 5th Edition yet, but I know the general lore. Can I still join?

You can definitely try making a game based only on information available for free online, for example by browsing fanmade Wiki or by asking lore questions to our community on World of Darkness or Dark Pack Community Discord servers. That being said, adherence to the setting will be one of our judging criteria, so try to keep close to it! 

Can I include characters featured in VTM books or LA by Night?

Yes! 

Can I adapt another game I’ve made previously into a VTM setting for this game jam?

No, your game has to be made from scratch in the duration of this game jam. 

Can I include a werewolf/changeling/mage in the game?

You can include other World of Darkness creatures as non-playable characters, just keep in mind to base it on Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition and avoid concepts known only from other splats.

Can I use Kuei-Jin/Kiasyd/Baali/any other legacy concept in my game?

No, your game should be based on Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition.

The terms of conduct state participation in this game jam automatically gives you a license to my game - what does it mean in practice?

Our terms of conduct are very similar to our Paradox Mod Policy. Legally, it means you - as a creator - still own the game, but you grant us a license for it, and if we ever were to use that license, we’d still need to credit you as an owner. In practice, it’s a legal prerequisite we’d use only to protect our brand IP ownership, and only in the most extreme cases. From our history of working with mod creators, if we ever liked a particular idea and wanted to adapt it into our official products, we always asked for the developers consent, or released their projects officially in collaboration with the modders (for example, with Surviving Mars or Cities: Skylines packs). This allows us to maintain a good relationship with community creators. If you have any questions about terms of conduct and the jam’s rules, please feel free to @ Outstar on Dark Pack Community Discord! 

Is this game jam your way of getting ideas for future Vampire: The Masquerade games? 

There is only one resource in game development that there’s always an abundance of: ideas! We have a plenty of things cooking behind the scenes, and our main goal in organizing this game jam is to allow our community to make cool things and enjoy them together. That being said, if we absolutely love your idea, we’ll get in touch with you!