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Thanks everybody for your submissions! Syafire will be streaming some of the submissions on Itch in a few minutes. 

https://www.twitch.tv/syafire

Hi! The categories are listed on the jam page. There are five categories that people can vote on. The winning team of each category will win 1 $50 Steam gift certificate. The team with the highest overall score will win 1 $100 Steam gift certificate. It is possible for one team to win multiple certificates. I hope this helps!

The secondary theme of the jam is "Set Up"

Think about these nuances of the phrase. There are lots!

• “…to set up an environment…”
  • To install and arrange something for use.
    • Ex: Maybe a dungeon master sets up a dungeon for their players.
    • Ex: Maybe a medieval lord sets up a defense and traps against an invading army.
    • Ex: Maybe an overlord sets up a realistic environment for a human science experiment that doesn’t realize he’s a part of.
• “…to set up an organization…”
  • To establish or start a business or organization.
    • Ex: Maybe a cook sets up their own bakery.
    • Ex: Maybe a student sets up a new school club and recruits participants.
    • Ex: Maybe a corporation sets up a mining colony on an asteroid.
• “…to set up for optimal performance…”
  • To plan and arrange things for a desired outcome
    • Ex: Maybe a photographer sets up their camera for a perfect shot.
    • Ex: Maybe a criminal sets up a plan for a heist.
    • Ex: Maybe a bachelor sets up their first date for success.
• “…to set someone up…” [positive meaning]
  • To help people by giving them resources or equipment
    • Ex: Maybe a government sets up surveyors to go on expeditions to other planets.
    • Ex: Maybe you are advising students at some wizarding school to have a successful career.
• “…to set someone up…” [negative meaning]
  • To make someone appear guilty of something they didn’t do
    • Ex: Maybe a murderer sets up a murder scene to frame you.
    • Ex: Maybe a bureaucrat manipulates documents to commit crimes and set up a scapegoat to evade detection
    • Ex: Maybe a double agent sets up a covert operation to fail without exposing themselves.
• There are perhaps other meanings of “set up” that I haven’t identified here. Those are correct too (you don’t need to double check with me!)
  • You could make a volleyball game where you set up your teammates for spikes.
    • You could make a game where you prevent your cat from knocking things off shelves by setting them up out of her reach.
• One piece of advice: You don’t need to have the gameplay literally be “your player sets something up”. Setting up can be an element of the story, your player could be the one being set up. Think broadly. As long as you can make a case for how your game fits the theme, it will be accepted.

The kickoff stream can be watched on Twitch or on Discord!

https://www.twitch.tv/fancymatto

See you soon!

I would say that you're likely to have more fun as part of a team, especially if you're brand new to game dev. You can join our Discord server to try and find a team.

Yep! It's open to everybody.

We're T-minus 24 hours until the start of the Thoughtful Jam!
If you don't yet have a team, be sure to join our Discord server. Make a thread in the #looking-for-team.
There will be a kickoff stream at 6:00 PM MDT (That's 5:00 PM Pacific, 8:00 PM Eastern). The stream will be on Discord as well as my twitch channel. During that stream I'll announce the secondary theme and then you're free to begin making your game. If you can't make the stream, don't worry, I'll post the secondary theme to Itch as well as on Discord.
Thank you everybody for signing up! This is going to be a fun jam.

If you are using a controller, you can adjust the camera angle with the right control stick. If you are using keyboard and mouse, you adjust the camera angle with the mouse.

1. Exit the village from the entrance

2. Enter your house during the final sequence 

3. Enter the forest and head to Hop Pop’s location

4. Enter the forest, proceed at least 15 feet forward, then attempt to leave

There is no immortality cheat. I suggest you dodge by turning sharply before you are caught. Good luck!

The only way to beat the game is to exit through the village entrance. But there are alternative "endings" if you go various places during the final sequence.

Yes! Although you may not like what you find…

We're still talking about the next steps for these characters. The game is basically complete for now, but you're not the only one who sees a possibility for more Hamster Chef. :)

I can't speak to the lore, but the graphic in the game is literally the MissingNo graphic. Good catch :)

Thanks for playing and sorry you had some trouble with the camera! The camera is supposed to freely rotate and move up and down so you can see more in front of you. It must have been really frustrating to play with it stuck in the highest position. We've rolled out more improvements to the camera in later versions.

Looks amazing! Can't wait to see the finished work. Thanks a ton for your support, it means a lot!

We used Unity 2021.3!

Yes, if you managed to get into the house during the end sequence then you've seen the secret cutscene. Although we're adding a little bit of new content in an upcoming update!

Whoa, weird! Sorry about that! We do have pretty decent auto-save so if you exit to main menu and continue you shouldn't be sent too far back.

Best thumbnail so far!! Thanks for playing!

Just watched your video. Thanks so much for playing! The part during the end chase sequence was hilarious :D

I definitely hear you about wishing it was longer. We had to cut a lot of our vision out for the middle of the game so we could submit a completed game (only had 6 weeks). 

Very weird. I use both controllers personally and it has worked for me. Also a bunch of people have made it past that part. I'm sorry you're experiencing this problem and can't see the full game. We'll look into possible reasons and solutions.

Thanks for the comment! Would you mind telling me more about the problem you experienced leaving the starting area? Do you mean the Kitchen or the Village level? To leave the Kitchen you just interact with the door. To leave the Village you first need to reach a certain part of the story.

I usually don't do visual novels but this really made me understand their power. I loved the graphical style and the atmosphere you were able to achieve. Also, the sound design was really, really good. Great work!

Really great game! You've made something that's very fun to play which is a challenge, even setting aside all the great work on assets you've done. I can't believe you did this all by yourself! This could make a great mobile game if you wanted to go that route.

This appears to be a simulation of a tour around a Finnish municipal center. If there is another layer of gameplay here that I am missing, my apologies. I found it interesting and even charming in its way for what it was at the surface level -- I appreciate the attention to detail the creator gave to this corner of the world that I will probably never visit.

Thanks so much for playing and posting! The whole team is buzzing that you played through it and recorded your reactions. Subscribed!

Very great interpretation of the theme! This was a very clever mash-up of two incompatible genres. As others have said, I wish the combat felt a little better. I also wish there was more song variety. But this was an enjoyable surprise. Great job!

Very cool concept! It took me a while to get used to it but it's hard to beat Tetris for gameplay.

Very unique concept and I liked the gameplay. Switching to different gun shapes to kill different enemies is a cool idea. I didn't understand the colored shapes (cubes, cylinders) in the rooms though. Am I supposed to interact with them somehow? Shooting or touching them doesn't seem to have an effect.

I'm eager to play it but I'm not sure how to. Both vs CPU and Multiplayer I see Ready Up and hear music, but then no buttons seem to react. The controls options are also locked out. Is this a bug or am I missing something obvious?

I thought the visual style was good. The clicks have a lot of impact which is important. I wish the upgrades were a little more affordable. After upgrading damage once and facing the prospect of another 500-750 clicks to unlock Auto I had to bow out. Good music and it looks like you have some nice variety in there as well.

The visuals are good, but I'm afraid there's not much "game" there.  Very floaty jumping and slow car speeds prevent this from being more enjoyable to play and there's not much challenge to landing on other cars. Sweet tunes tho.