I wanted to post this here to see about others' interest in this, what they'd expect from this jam, and who could help on the most essential part of the jam that I'll be going into soon.
For starters, the premise of this jam is kind of in the name. Instead of normal game jams where it's usually just to have fun in making a game, the jam is also intended to be a boost in developers' careers in game dev. How so? Well, the entire jam is going to be an attempt to simulate the entire cycle of game development. Within a month before the jam begins, jammers will have the ability to design their games beforehand so that once the jam begins, jammers will be able to work in full production on the game. But the most essential part comes at the end, where the top highest voted submissions would get critiques from experienced creators in the industry. This would mean people working in triple-A, or any successful studio in general. It would also include people who've worked in the industry for a little while with 3 or more years of experience. But it would be primarily people who are in Design, Art, or Animation to help critique those aspects of submitted games.
Now why join the jam? Aside from the fact that jammers would give feedback from experienced people from the industry, it's also an incentive to start learning more about the full-on game dev cycle. But most of all, it would hopefully serve as a chance to boost dev's careers up. I know currently, there are a few jams that are also doing a year-long time for development, but I believe these jams are meant to be similar to other jams, mostly for fun and to incentivize working on a game for a year. But this jam is meant to be dedicated to a bit more than just that, with the primary focus being to help improve ourselves as game devs overall.
This is also why, and the weirdest part of all, I'll be participating in this jam alongside others. The reason why I first started off this idea of making a jam was to spend a full year on a project, but I felt that there would've been no drive to push towards the end. Whereas with this jam, it would bring about the chance to work on a full project, and simulate a real game development experience rather than just doing a passion project on the side.
So here's where I need your help on this, the Itch community. Firstly, I'd like feedback on what people think of this idea, what would you expect out of this jam if you wanted to come into it? And secondly, who would be interested in either moderating and or being a dev in the experienced creator slot? Remember the premise being that such people at the end of the jam would critique these submissions (would be the top voted games).
If you're interested in this jam as well, currently I have a WIP Discord https://discord.gg/9gBQRhCAsT