Howdy folks~👻

Our lovely bundle is now on sale until October 31, 2024! Shoot these links to all of your friends and supporters and let them know that your work is in great company with tons of other queer creators~

• $60 Fright Edition
• $10 Treat Edition

We've also put out a few social media posts already to spread the word about the bundle. It'd mean the world to us if you could share these posts around wherever you hang out!

• https://cohost.org/QueerHalloweenStories/post/7921891-br-div-style-text
• https://www.pillowfort.social/posts/5380413
• https://www.tumblr.com/queerhalloweenstories/763106706615140352/the-queer-halloween-stories-bundle-2024-is-live
• https://gamedev.lgbt/@queerhalloweenstories/113230169893423609
• https://bsky.app/profile/queerhalloween.bsky.social/post/3l5gdkgovsx2q
• https://x.com/QueerHalloween/status/1840965236435698109

The following is the same from our previous email, just in case you missed it. We recommend saving this email so you can have those resources on hand!

[excerpt trimmed to save space]

Announcements for the bundle are live!

• https://cohost.org/QueerHalloweenStories/post/7921891-br-div-style-text
• https://www.pillowfort.social/posts/5380413
• https://www.tumblr.com/queerhalloweenstories/763106706615140352/the-queer-halloween-stories-bundle-2024-is-live
• https://gamedev.lgbt/@queerhalloweenstories/113230169893423609
• https://bsky.app/profile/queerhalloween.bsky.social/post/3l5gdkgovsx2q
• https://x.com/QueerHalloween/status/1840965236435698109

Salutations, everyone! 🎃 We've got fantastic news for you all, as well as some tips leading up to our launch so you can tell folks about the bundle.

BTW, you might be getting this email twice (once from itch.io, the second as a BCC) since we've heard from some folks that they aren't getting the itch emails. Please be sure to subscribe to our public Bundle Organizing Updates thread in the Jam Community board!

itch support response

itch support was able to get back to us in time to add the 5 projects we weren't able to put in manually, bringing us back up to 144 projects in the bundle! We're grateful to them for getting this done before launch, and we're hoping that they can help us adjust the revenue splits evenly down the the decimal percentages as well.

We've since updated all of our promo images back to say "140+" instead of "130+" Projects too. Speaking of which...

Promotional Graphics for Sharing

Just like last year, we've prepared a few templates for you to use in order to spread the word about your participation in the bundle! You can find these in a Google Drive folder we've set up, particularly in the Graphics Template folder. That folder includes a document file with instructions on how to edit the image files to add your itch cover image in, as well as a basic text template you can base your posts on.

Where do I Post?

We know that's a difficult question that's getting harder and harder to answer these days. If you aren't already following our official social media accounts, you can find them below:

• Bluesky (NEW!)
• Mastodon (gamedev.lgbt)
• Pillowfort
• Tumblr
• Twitter (or X)

Feel free to share the bundle if you're on other platforms! We use the hashtag #QueerHalloweenStoriesBundle on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Twitter, and #Queer Halloween Stories Bundle on Pillowfort and Tumblr. Please use the hashtag that makes sense on your platform of choice! You can share your posts in our Social Media Posts thread so others can find them too.

You can also share your participation in the bundle by sharing it in newsletters, blogs, your own Discord/instant messaging communities, and even via itch.io's own Email Owners function in an individual page's Interact section (be careful not to over use this!)

Ideas for What to Post

The Queer Halloween Stories Bundle will be available until October 31, 2024, so we have a whole month to ask folks to support it. Besides the initial announcement, here are some idea prompts for things you can write about too:

• Why did you make your project?
• What does horror/the Halloween aesthetic do for you, personally?
• What other stories from the bundle did you enjoy?
• What other stories from the bundle scared you the most?
• Liveblog reading or playing something from the bundle!

We hope that gives you all some inspiration! We'll see you when the bundle goes live!

The Queer Halloween Stories Bundle Team

Hi there! We don't have an official account on Reddit and most of our team don't frequent the site as much, so our low Karma might not allow our posts to be effective. We'd love it if you could share your Reddit threads in our new topic for Social Media Posts!

We put out a call for members of the press and content creators to feature our bundle! If you know someone who would love to get their gay hands onto some queer stories for next month, feel free to shoot them a link to this application to request review keys. Here's that post on our social media sites:

• Cohost
• Mastodon (gamedev.lgbt)
• Pillowfort
• tumblr
• Twitter (aka X)

Social media is still a large means of reaching out to new potential supporters, so to make it easy to find and share posts from each other, let's drop them in this thread! As a reminder, the organizing team has official accounts on these sites:

• Bluesky
• Mastodon (gamedev.lgbt)
  
• Pillowfort
• Tumblr
• Twitter (or X)
  

If you use a social media site that's not listed here, still feel free to drop a link to your posts here so others can share it!

We did it! Thanks to everyone for being so quick to respond, as our bundle URLS are now live and ready to go for when October 1 rolls around. You can find those here:

• $60 Fright Edition
• $10+ Treat Edition

So now, what's next?

Social Media & Outreach

Cohost is effectively shutting down at the beginning of October so we won't be able to make any posts there by the time we launch! 😭 As folks who participated in the bundle last year might remember, people coming from Cohost gave us a major boost to the $60 Fright Edition with huge tips, so this is a massive blow to us and everyone who frequented that site.

Cohost was one of the few blogging-style social media sites that don't interrupt logged out users by asking them to join or sign in just for scrolling through user pages, which is another reason we liked it so much. Luckily, one of our pals from Fiendish Fiction gave us an invite to Pillowfort so we've opened up a new account there! Shout out to WhiskeyWorks for being awesome~ If you're there, we'd appreciate a follow!

We've also put out a call for members of the press and content creators to feature our bundle! If you know someone who would love to get their gay hands onto some queer stories for next month, feel free to shoot them a link to this application to request review keys. Additionally, we put this call out on our social media sites:

• Cohost
• Mastodon (gamedev.lgbt)
• Pillowfort
• tumblr
• Twitter (aka X)

Get Your Posts & Newsletters Ready

We're working on getting some graphics templates ready for you so you can promote your projects ASAP! In the meantime, you can head over to our carrd press kit website to grab the fact sheet. Don't send anything just yet, but being prepared early is key to success~

Keep an eye on your inboxes for more instructions in the coming days. Once again, thank you to everyone for participating!

- The Queer Halloween Stories Bundle team

P.S. Are you not getting these emails delivered to your inbox for some reason? Try subscribing to our public thread here! We'll be crossposting important communications there so you don't miss a thing.

Hi everyone! 🍬

We've just shot off our email to itch support asking them to import the jam submissions into the bundles and equalize the revenue splits. Once they've populated our bundle pages, we'll forward the bundle links to all of you so you can confirm your final participation!

What can I do in the meantime?

Now's a great time to polish up your pages on itch.io! We've compiled a collection of resources that'll help you spiffy up your pages, from figuring out the best dimensions for banners and screenshots to some of the backend Metadata that'll help more folks find your projects. Check it out here!

Are you having trouble getting images down to 3MB each? Compress and optimize .webp, .png, and .jpg images using TinyPNG, and your .gif animations with ezgif.

We also highly recommend compiling a press kit for your project as well. A proper press kit easily lays out information like release date and genre for reviewers and writers so they can write articles faster. The following resources are intended for Digital Games, but can give you a pretty great idea of what to include for other media:

• carrd presskit template by npckc
• presskit() 2.0 by Rami Ismail
• Notion PressKit 2.0 by KrisWB
• FeePresskit by Feemagie
• The IndieGameDatabase can also generate a press kit for you, with the added bonus of adding your game to Twitch's stream categories

Game Showcases & Festivals

For our game developers, we've rounded up a few showcases & festivals you can consider submitting your projects to! Please be sure to carefully read each form and FAQ before submitting to make sure you qualify.

• Melbourne Queer Games Festival 2024 — Open until August 30, 2024
• PLAY - CREATIVE GAMING FESTIVAL 2024 (Submission Form) — Open until September 1, 2024
• Queer Indies Showcase — Open until September 6, 2024
• Indie X — Open until September 15th, 2024
• NOVELASIA - South East Asia Visual Novel Showcase 2024 — Open until September 22, 2024
• Independent Games Festival — Open until September 30, 2024

And as always, remember to follow us on our social media! We'll be getting ready to hype ourselves up as we get closer to October, so help us get seen!

• Cohost
• Mastodon (gamedev.lgbt)
• Tumblr
• Twitter (or X)

Thanks again for joining us~

The Queer Halloween Stories Bundle Team 

Thanks for your patience! Our team has been hard at work reviewing all of the entries we've received, and throughout the month we may have contacted a few of you to ask for additional information regarding your submission. We plan to reach out to itch support on August 29, 2024 to import the jam submissions into the bundle. If you've gotten a different email from us, please be sure to respond before the end of August 28.

In the meantime, remember to follow us on our social media!

• Cohost
• Mastodon (gamedev.lgbt)
• Tumblr
• Twitter (or X)

That's all we have for now. We look forward to working with you!

The Queer Halloween Stories Bundle Team 

Howdy folks~👻

Thanks for your interest in participating in this year's Queer Halloween Stories Bundle! There's less than 36 hours before the application window closes, so we want to remind everyone one final time to make sure to fill out the Google Form and submit something to this jam. If you miss one of these steps, we won't be able to get you into the bundle. Otherwise if you've already got that squared away, you're all set!

We've also set up dedicated social media accounts for the bundle this year, as we heard last year that having posts be so decentralized was difficult for everyone to keep track of. If you're on one of those sites, we'd appreciate a follow~

• Cohost
• Mastodon (gamedev.lgbt)
• Tumblr
• Twitter (or X)

That's all we have for now. If you know any friends who'd benefit from participating in this year's bundle, please feel free to invite them as well.

We look forward to working with you!

The Queer Halloween Stories Bundle Team

Hello there~👻

Thanks for your interest in participating in this year's Queer Halloween Stories Bundle! As the application window closes up, we want to remind everyone to make sure to fill out the Google Form and submit something to this jam. If you've already done that, then kick back and relax!

Why do I have to do both?

As mentioned on the front page of the jam, we use the Google Form to verify that you're a queer creator on itch.io, as well as get detailed information on each submission. We've created several tabs in the resulting spreadsheet in order to collate data and make the review process as swift as possible.

When we were setting up the jam page, we found that itch.io's custom fields sections were a bit funky when it came to single-choice field buttons labeled as "Required," as it "will force the user to select ALL of the available options." This wasn't ideal for our needs, so we stuck to the tired and true Google Form to collect most of the information.

Meanwhile, this jam is the method we'll be using to populate the bundle, as outlined in the documentation. This is how many of the larger co-op bundles on itch.io are created, so it's a process you'll get familiar with when you participate in many bundles.

That's all we have for now. If you know any friends who'd benefit from participating in this year's bundle, please feel free to invite them as well.

We look forward to working with you!

What's different this year?

Switch in Organization

With this being the QHSB's third year running, it was time to expand the moderation team to disseminate tasks among a larger group rather than just a few people. This also means that the QHSB will no longer be formally associated as a solely Project Ensō endeavor; going forward, the Queer Halloween Stories Bundle Team will be its own independent collective whose collaborators may change from year to year depending on their availability. We hope that this will give the team the flexibility to respond to inquiries quickly without burning out any single one individual.

More Precise Questions

The Google Form portion has been reworded, adjusted, and greatly extended to both make moderation of entries and outreach to press, reviewers, streamers, etc. easier. The majority of the new questions help us categorize individual submissions by things such as representation, genre, content, and more. Please be sure to set aside a minimum of 20 minutes to complete the application, or more depending on if you're submitting multiple projects.

Miscellaneous Adjustments

We also combed through the jam page and Google Form to correct instances where it implied that all submissions were games. We'd love to have more Books and Comics this year, so please share them with us!

~~~

If you have any questions or concerns, please shoot us an email at queerhalloweenstoriesbundle@gmail.com and we'll do our best to get back to you soon. We look forward to working with you again!

Hello everyone! Just in case you miss a jam email communication from us, we'll be putting pertinent updates here in this thread. Private communications will continue to be sent via email from queerhalloweenstoriesbundle@gmail.com, so be sure to stay on top of your inbox.