Hi, me and some friends were thinking of entering this game jam and we really like the sound of the third prompt (Your Spirit is an Elemental Weapon) but it seems much more restrictive than the other two prompts, in that the first two provide little more than a setting to work in, whereas the third prompt restricts gameplay mechanics quite a bit, to the point where it becomes difficult to work with.

How strictly are the rules for this prompt going to be enforced? If we wanted to design a game in which the player harvested elemental energy from something like totems or powerups or even enemies, or if the player used harvested energy in a manner that isn't necessarily a weapon, would that disqualify us?

Hello to you, knux400, and thank you so much for the question.  ^^  I just want to clear up some confusion on the third theme of “Your Spirit is an Elemental Weapon”, just to make it a little easier for both you and the other entrants who pick this one as the selection of choice for this game jam.

If you really wanted to design a game where your character harvested elemental energy from something like totem poles, power-ups, and and any sort of thing you can dream up, you are quite welcome to do that.  And also, you are TRULY also more than welcome to allow the player to use harvested energy in a manner that is not necessarily a weapon as well, such as using it to help you solve puzzles easier... or if you prefer, use that very same kind of energy there for any creative means that you can dream of.  In fact, all of the above is *absolutely* encouraged, as it is not against the rules at all in any way whatsoever.  So I say go for it, as I want the third theme here to be as freely open to both interpretation and imagination as you really want it to be.

Once again, thank you so much for the question indeed, knux400, and I just want to make thoroughly sure that it all makes a lot more sense to you now so as to make things even more fair and lenient for you as well as all the other entrants choosing this third theme we are talking about together.  ;)