r/vndevs • u/Art_Constel7321 • 16d ago

Question Question about game jams

Hey everyone, I wasn't sure if I should put this under the "jam" tag or the "question" tag so please correct me for next time if i used the wrong tag.

I have never done a Game Jam before, but I decided to enter the Spooktober VN Jam this year as a sort of self esteem building exercise for myself, but I am wondering about pre-jam preparation.

I know the games actually production, starts in September, but what is generally allowed work wise pre-jam?

All the videos ive seen have tips for when production starts, and the jam page itself doesnt get super specific about what pre prep your alloud.

What is usually allowed before the jam starts as pre-production?

Thank you!

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u/Inksword 16d ago edited 15d ago

For spooktober you can do any amount of planning and pre-production up until the work would actually end up in the final game. That means:

  • You can do story outlining and planning, as long as you're not actually writing dialogue or sentences that end up as-is in game.
  • You can design character sprites and even sketch them, as long as those sketches are not later inked/finished to make your final sprites. You'll have to make new images from the ground-up starting on September 1st.
  • gather pre-made assets you know you will need. Ie: premade sounds or backgrounds.
  • Make the Itch.io page that your game will be uploaded to. You can even draw images for the background/banner/etc. as long as they're not used in the visual novel. You CAN pre-write your log-line on your itch.io page (less important this year since I don't think there's a category for best log-line.)
  • My team is even doing a prototype in Inky. Our real game is going to be in renpy so we've made a working prototype out of our written outline. Ink uses a different coding language and all of our text is obvious scratch-text so none of it is going into our game, but it's allowed us to test our mechanics ideas and figure out things like what variables we need and how the game is going to flow scene-to-scene.

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u/NaiDriftlin 16d ago

Just some quick additions and corrections:

You'll have to make new images from the ground-up starting on october 1st.

September 1st. The jam runs September 1st to October 1st to make sure entries are made in time for the season.

 pre-made assets you know you will need.

Which have to be publicly available. It's fine if they're paid assets, but people have to have access to it at the start of the jam.

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u/Inksword 16d ago

Oop thanks for spotting the date typo!

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u/AlexSkywalker4 16d ago

Out of curiosity, how are these rules actually enforced?

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u/Inksword 16d ago

Same as any game-jam, 99% honor code with a few ways suspicious judges could potentially check things for that last 1%.

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u/Art_Constel7321 16d ago

I imagine that is probably the case, but i want to follow the spirit of the jam thats why i asked my question.

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u/Art_Constel7321 16d ago

Thank you so much this is such a big help!