Good morning, afternoon, or evening. Wherever and whenever you are. Welcome to the Heart Jam!

The Heart Jam is a 72 hour game jam hosted by yours truly (HeartBeast). I teach people how to make their own games using GameMaker Studio and the Godot Engine.

THEME: -----SCARCITY-----
Scarcity is a powerful tool that is generally used in marketing but more recently seems to be used in game design as well. Making health, items, or even time scarce in your game can give players feelings of excitement, tension, and anticipation.

A few examples would be Minit (which makes time scarce), Pokemon (which makes certain Pokemon scarce, even going so far as to add shiny Pokemon), and Fortnite’s Battle Royale mode (which makes different items scarce).

RULES:

1. Keep content PG-13 or lower (you know, fairly family friendly)
2. Be civil towards each other
3. Teams are allowed (and encouraged)
4. Use only assets or code you have the rights to use
5. If you make your own assets it should be done during the jam
6. If you have any scripts or libraries you would like to use you can add those to your project file before the jam starts
7. Use whatever game engine you wish
8. If you have a twitter use the #heartgamejam tag to show off what you are working on!
9. Have fun

[rules are subject to revision over the next few days so make sure you read them again when the jam starts]

VOTING:

This jam is more for fun than for competition but getting feedback on your work is a great way to learn! Voting will begin once the jam has ended and will run for 2 weeks. Here are the categories that will be voted on:

• Fun
• Visuals
• Music
• Sound
• Story
• Theme

PRIZES:

After the jam I will be selecting my favorite games (independent of which games score highest in the voting) and playing them on my YouTube channel.

FAQ:

• What does rule 6 mean? Rule 6 means that you can create your project file, add helper scripts and small libraries to it. Many developers have scripts or libraries that they always use when starting a new project. These generally extend the engine they use and aren't specific to any game. For example, maybe you have some movement scripts you use for every game you make. Those would be okay to add to your project file. If you have a specific case you would like to ask about feel free to ask in the community and I'll do my best to answer.
• How do I submit my game? When submitting your game you can use the normal itch.io submission process. After adding your game to itch.io you can navigate to the Heart Jam page, press the submit button, and select your game. The submit button will be removed at the end of the deadline so don't wait too long!
• What is the best format for submitting my game? I would highly recommend HTML5 along with video footage of your game and screenshots. Of course, not everyone can submit using HTML5. If that is the case, use a single executable file (don't use an installer for a small game jam game) and make sure you have video footage. I'd recommend using OBS to record video of your game and LICEcap to record GIFs.
• Should I sleep? YES. Make sure you stay hydrated (with water) and get plenty of rest.
• How do I submit a game as a team? Have one member of your team submit the game. During the submission process you will see an area for listing the other team members that contributed.
• Can I update my game after the deadline? Yes, but only small bug fixes. You also need to leave the original file and describe the updates you made.
• I uploaded my game to Itch but I forgot to submit it to the jam! Send me an email with your game's URL and I should be able get a custom submission link for you.

CO-SPONSORS:

Special thanks to YoYo Games for helping raise awareness of the jam and for providing a free temporary GameMaker Studio 2 Desktop license from now until the 28th. If you've been wanting to try all of the new features in GameMaker Studio 2 now is the time!

To get your free license all you need to do is create a YoYo account (or use an existing one) and then click this promo link.

Once again, this gives you temporary full access to GameMaker Studio 2 and until the 28th of this month. There is also an optional 20% discount to upgrade (before the 28th) if you end up liking the software enough and want to keep it.

CROWDFORGE:

Crowdforge is a website deigned to help you create teams. If you want to participate in a team it is a great way to set one up. Click here to create a new team or join an existing one.

THANK YOU:

Thanks for your interest in the Heart Jam!

- Ben