The theme is: "TOGETHER"

Some ideas of theme interpretation if you're looking for ideas:

• a game about grouping things TOGETHER
• a game about a group of adventures gathering TOGETHER to go on a quest
• a save-the-princess game... "TO GET HER"
• a game that tells a story of being TOGETHER "romance/family"
• any game that's intended to be played TOGETHER with friends (party games, co-ops)
• a game about categorising things TOGETHER, like animals on a farm
• game mechanics about connecting objects TOGETHER (jigsaw, power outlet)
• some form of planning game where you could say... "the plan has come TOGETHER"

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The EIGHTH official Honest Jam, hosted by HonestDanGames! The aim is to host a more relaxed jam, where people can challenge their selves to create and learn at a pace that suits their own schedules and skillset. The jam runs over 9 days, but you are not expected to submit 9 days worth of work - the time frame is intended to make the gamejam more accessible for people who can't just cram for 2-3 days straight. Two weekends and 5 week days - hopefully that gives you a chance to take part!

Dan will be streaming throughout the week of the Honest Jam on Twitch! He will be raising money for SpecialEffect and will be donating £1* of his own money for every game submitted to the jam. In the last 3 fund-raisers, we raised a total of almost £8000 for SpecialEffect, which is amazing! Feel free to join the community discord and share your progress over the duration of the jam!

The Theme

A theme will be announced on the Saturday at 12:00 UK Time (GMT) on my Twitch channel. 

How does it work?

Here's expectations for the Honest Jam:

• Over a week long, to allow people who work / have other commitments to still take part in a jam. 
• You are discouraged from using the entire duration of the jam to cram in as much work as possible!
• You are encouraged to create your game from scratch! Naturally you can copy-paste some generic code you've written in the past. If you want to use an asset pack to fill a gap you can't fulfill yourself, then go ahead - but please state it clearly on the submission page. The key thing here is to be respectful and do not misrepresent your efforts.
• You are encouraged to create a game that's inspired by the theme!
• Honest Dan will endeavor to play and give feedback to all games submitted, likely during the week(s) following the Jam's conclusion.
• Everyone who submits a game is a winner. People are encouraged to play each others games and give feedback, but there is no individual "winner". The ranking system is to highlights the strengths/weaknesses of a game.

Making games alone can be lonely. We want contributors to feel they can communicate during the jam, share progress screen shots, and ask for general support if they need. Dan will be streaming on Twitch during the Jam Week,  so feel free to hang out in Twitch chat when you're working. The community Discord also has a section dedicated to the Game Jam.

Submissions

• You are encouraged to submit your efforts, even if you didn't finish on time! Even if unplayable, feel free to share a design doc or share a video of any game footage you've got.  Be proud of your effort!
• Do your best to submit before the jam deadline. If you miss the deadline, get in touch with me via Discord so I can provide you with a late submission link!
• Do not submit games you have made outside of the game jam's duration. Sounds pretty obvious, but from previous experience this regrettably has to be said! 
• If you created a game for another game jam during this jam's duration and it still fits the theme - then you are welcome to submit it.

Who is Honest Dan? 

Dan is a professional game developer from Wales, who first started off his game dev journey back on Twitch in 2017. He streamed his learning full time for 18 months, before getting hired in a UK-based game dev studio in 2019. He still streams today, though is unable to stream as often due to work commitments.

Join the Honest Dan community discord  here https://discord.gg/Zmp5f5ARqQ.  Game dev streams will happen at https://www.twitch.tv/honestdangames.  Tutorials, game dev interviews, jam highlights and more can be found on my YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/honestdangames. 

FAQ

Question: Do I have to submit a playable game?
Answer: Feel free to submit only a game design doc or some character designs and concepts if that's all you have time / want to do! Remember that board games and card games are also a valid format for a game jam game (though if you want me to play it it'll need to be exported into Table Top Simulator)

Question: Is it ok if I do concept art / rough story planning before the jam?  
Answer: Ideally it'd be done during the jam window, but as long as you're not creating assets / content for your game. So maybe think out a story, but don't write the script? and draw things but don't use them in-game? The question you should ask yourself is "is this against the spirit of a game jam?"

Question: Can I continue a game I already started?
Answer: No, the point of the jam is to start a project and end it within the 9 day period! The same goes for using existing code / assets - ideally avoid it, but if its the difference between you being able to take part or not - then you can. If you do use existing assets / code, please state it on your game page clearly.

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* = up to 200 genuine submissions.