Submissions open from 2026-01-01 05:00:00 to 2026-02-01 05:00:00
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Announcements

Themes announced!

The themes for this year are CLASH & CRUSH and  TOXIC LOVE! These themes are inspired by our community's mascots, but feel free to interpret and misinterpret them as you wish! A play on words is just as good as the inspiration!

The second theme was made possible by the supportive people in our community!  Further funds raised, up to $200 total, will go to making this year's Sealed With A Kiss a prized competition! A submission will be selected by the host of the Jam and awarded a prize if this goal is met! You can check out our one-time donation options on Patreon or our merch shop below!

Patreon
Support on Patreon
Merch Store
Support by Buying Merch!

Welcome to Sealed with a Kiss Jam!

In this jam, you are given the month of January to make a Fantastical Romance.  Then, during the first two weeks of February we'll invite itch users, streamers, and visual novel lovers to vote on their favorites! 


We are the Visual Novel Development Network!  We represent a vibrant and diverse community of visual novel creative professionals and hobbyists.  Our objective is to provide a safe learning space for people to develop professional skills related to visual novels, provide networking opportunities focused around actionable problem solving.  Our community, between jams we host or support, our bots(like Lemon and Plum here!), and our helpful Devtalk Discord Server, helps over 500 visual novels get created annually, many of which are available here on on Itch.io! 

Theme

In this jam, you are tasked with creating a fantastical romance narrative game or visual novel.  To qualify for submission, it must have the following elements:

  • It must fit within any fantasy or supernatural subgenre.  Think magic, mythical creatures, mystical locations, etc.
  • It must feature at least 1 visual depiction of a kiss between two willing participants.
  • It must be a visual novel or similarly narrative heavy experience.  

The themes for this year are CLASH & CRUSH and  TOXIC LOVE! These themes are inspired by our community's mascots, but feel free to interpret and misinterpret them as you wish! A play on words is just as good as the inspiration!

Offshoots, spin offs, and 'fan-disc' style submissions are allowed and encouraged, however only your UI, game logo and company logo can be reused without modification. 

Rules

Click on the rules below for details and explanations!
Submissions must be made in their entirety between the jam's running period of January 1st  and January 31st.
You are permitted to create concept art, written outlines and log lines prior to the start date. With the exception of the log line, these prior creations cannot be used as-is in your final submissions.
Tag your submissions with content warnings appropriately.

Please be mindful of commonly reported content descriptors!

The ESRB's content descriptors are a good guideline of what we want to be mindful of!  

Sexually explicit content is permitted in this jam! Click here for more details about sexual content restrictions and requirements.
Sexual content must be marked on the submission page AND in the submission questionnaire! This directs people who want sexually explicit content to what you're making and helps them navigate the submissions!

Scenes containing sexual content must only contain characters that are 18 years or older. Underaged characters, or characters coded as underaged (e.g. high schoolers), will result in your submission being pulled from the jam.

Characters participating in sexual acts must be of sound mind and willing.

Pre-existing resources are permitted as long as they are also available for usage/purchase by all other participants at the time the jam starts.
Jams can be tough, and it can be hard to create a complete experience on your own in such a limited time frame. We encourage utilizing pre-existing, pre-packaged assets to help supplement your development to ease the burdens of skill and time.

If these are resources you have personally made, they must be available at least 30 days prior to the start of the jam!

No generative AI usage in any aspect of your project.
Humans must illustrate, write, program, etc every part of your submission! Be mindful if you are using third party assets as per the previous rule, as this extends to 3rd party assets.
Your jam submissions must be made freely available during the month of February!
You're welcome to charge for your submissions later, we don't mind.

FAQ

What if I would be interested in sponsoring?
If you are interested in sponsoring Sealed With A Kiss Jam, please contact us at Nai@RemortStudios.com!
Can I make a fan game of this thing for SWAK Jam?
No. Fan games present a number of problems that violate other rules, including the usage of IPs you don't have rights to which is counter to our community's objectives of encouraging people to create original content.
Are werewolves, vampires, etc, fantasy for the sake of this jam?

We added 'Supernatural' as an included genre of so we don't have to split hairs over definitions.

Supernatural romance is pretty popular and really the goal here is to get people making things in time for Valentine's day.


Prizes

At this time, there are no prizes for Sealed With A Kiss Jam!  At the discretion of the host, an award may be given for the bonus mystery theme.

Sponsors

We are still seeking sponsors for Sealed With A Kiss Jam! If you are interested in sponsoring Sealed With A Kiss Jam, please contact us at Stella@RemortStudios.com
Why sponsor SWAK Jam?  Our community is composed of passionate and ambitious creators, and we're already a community trusted by sponsors like JAST USA, VOGRACE & CELSYS for one of our other major events.   

For the first time, because this event is open to NSFW works, we're also accepting sponsorship from organizations who specialize in NSFW creations, publishing and tools!