I am not a judge or admin of this jam but the rules do say that "strong sexual themes and content, graphic nudity, or extreme portrayals of violence" are not allowed. So even though the ESRB guidelines are what to be used, I do believe you need to follow them according to the rules of the jam. I think even if the ESRB guidelines for Mature17+ state that sexual content and intense violence is okay, the jam rules still say otherwise. So I'm fairly certain you'll want to go a step down from Mature 17 to be safe.
Right, that’s what I thought and why I asked. It seemed to contradict the rules.
The step below Mature17+ though is Teen, which allows for some ”crude humor, suggestive themes” but it also states ”minimal blood”. I’ve never seen anyone on rmw have any problem with bloody/gory horror games so I can only assume that part is okay.
Usually when people get offended by a gme, it’s because of sexual content, extreme language or a sensitive theme (religion, abuse, etc). So maybe safer to stick to the Teen rating im regards to those elements.