This week, DevTalk announced the beginning date for this year’s Spooktober Visual Novel Jam! This Jam is being hosted by Remort Studios, and will go from September 1st to the 30th.
You can join their Discord server or explore the Jam tag to stay in tune.
Here’s how it works. During the month of September, participants will have the entire month to create submissions based around the holiday. Then, through the month of October, itch users, streamers and the visual novel community will be invited to join in to celebrate and vote on their favorite submissions! Teams will be selected by our panel of judges to receive awards and prizes!
Itch.io page
In this Game Jam, you are tasked for completing a spooky or Halloween-themed visual novel. This could mean…
- A horror visual novel
- A visual novel that takes place on the holiday
- Individualized themes related to Halloween (e.g.: Monsters, Ghosts, Costumes, or Candy.)
- A creepypasta version of an existing work you created.
Offshoots, spin offs, and ‘fan-disc’ style submissions are allowed and encouraged! Please check this for more information.
There will be awards for the following categories!
(Awards do not have prizes unless otherwise noted.)
Submission-based criteria:
- Judge Favorite: Receive the most votes from the judges!
1st place 50% of prize pot, 2nd place 30%, 3rd place 20% - Itch.io Favorite: Receive the most votes from the public!
- Best Logline: Judged to have the best log line (1-3 sentences with what your visual novel is about.)
- Best Thumbnail: Judged to have the best thumbnail in your submission!
- Best Monster/Costume: Judged to have the best monster or costume!
Creator based criteria:
- Best Voice Actor
- Best Cinematography
- Best Original Music
Jam ends on September 30th and judging ends on October 28th! Extensions may be requested, but it disqualifies your team from prizes!
You can check all the rules for this jam on the official page. We highly encourage you to read all of it if you are interested in participating!
However, there were two things that seemed to be of most importance and, therefore, worth mentioning:
3. Submissions containing depictions of suicide or self-harm will be disqualified and removed. Text, whether in-game or in the files of the submission, containing instructions, encouragement of, or statement of intent of suicide or self-harm are similarly disqualified.
5. The usage of generative AI for any part of your submission is prohibited! Humans must illustrate, write, program, etc every part of your submission!
Itch.io page
Submissions for last year’s Spooktober Jam feature VNs such as:
- Melissa ❤️
- Elevator Hitch
- Our Fantastic Wonderland
- OhMyWitch!
- Girlfriend Simulator
- Lachesis ∨ Atropos (you can read our update article on it!)
You can read more about previous Jams and follow us for more!
For this post, all information and images were taken directly from the official Jam itch.io page.
