Hey!
I’ve been put in charge of organizing the jam this year, so I wanted to point out that format will be almost the same as the previous two years, with only some minor modifications. Like last year, the jam will begin on day one (thursday) and end on day three (saturday) with voting and game presentations. Also like last year, each game will be evaluated in 7 different categories, and should incorporate two to three randomly selected keywords. The categories will be announced when the jam begins (one of these is “Best Experience”, as usual), and the keywords are handed in by the participants before.
The difference, however, is that in addition to receiving 3 randomly selected words, you will also be allowed to use one of your own words as a replacement. Hopefully this will limit the effect of “silly” words that people complained about last year. I still think that the word constrait is a fun excercise that creates a lot of weird and interesting game concepts.
If you feel that you rather work on a bigger and more polished game than a 40-hour jam, I strongly encourage you to send a message to Erik on erik.svedang@gmail.com and present your game for everyone!
UPDATE
Erik wanted more time (and less interference) with the presentations, so we’ve adjusted the jam schedule a little.
Instead of beginning thursday evening, we’ll begin thursday afternoon (around 14 or so) and run the jam until friday evening (around 18 or so). Then we’ll use saturday (from 10 to 16 or so) to playtest and vote for all games. This still leaves a fair amount of time to make a game, while allowing people to relax and listen to all presentations friday and saturday nights.