Page still under construction! Stay tuned for announcements!
For the first time ever, we're seeking to crowdfund the competition's prizes! In addition to seeking sponsors this year, we've also made donations possible through itch.io through our asset releases, like this one:
- The Make Visual Novels RenPy Shader Pack: https://remort-studios.itch.io/make-visual-novels-rspv1
Welcome to our 6th annual Spooktober Visual Novel Jam! We are running a jam contest with prizes based around the best holiday of the year!
Halloween!
Here's how it works. During the month September, participants will have the entire month to create submissions based around the holiday. Then, through the month of October, we'll invite itch users, streamers and the visual novel community 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!
We are DevTalk! 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, and our helpful Discord Server, helps over 500 visual novels get created annually, many of which are available here on on Itch.io! The Spooktober Visual Novel Jam is our biggest event of the year, and is our only sponsor backed event. We hope that Spooktober Visual Novel Jam being the competitive event that it is will encourage game developers to try their hand at visual novels using any and all of their skills, and inspire existing visual novel developers to shoot for the sky with their submissions.
In this Game Jam, you are tasked for completing a spooky or Halloween themed visual novel. This could mean...
- A Horror Genre Visual Novel
- A Visual Novel that takes place on the holiday
- Individualized themes related to Halloween. Examples: Monsters, Ghosts, Costumes, Candy, etc.
- A Creepypasta version of an existing work you created.
Offshoots, spin offs, and 'fan-disc' style submissions are allowed and encouraged! Please see this from our community if you intend on making a spin off entry: https://itch.io/post/4185256
We will be offering 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
Creator based criteria:
- Best Voice Actor
- Best Cinematography
- Best Original Music
Jam ends October 1st and judging ends October 28th! Extensions may be requested, but it disqualifies your team from prizes!
- Tag your submissions with content warnings appropriately. The ESRB's content descriptors are a good guideline of what we want to be mindful of! https://www.esrb.org/ratings-guide/#cont_desc
- We respectfully request that all submissions be made without explicit sexual content. We won't complain if you change it after the jam.
- 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.
- Submissions must be made in their entirety between the jam's running period of September 1st and October 1st. You are permitted to create colorless sketches, stand alone color palettes, written outlines, visual or audio motifs intended for use in the submitted games prior the start date. Concept art, script samples, and other demonstrative creations may be created before the jam working period, but may not be included in your final submissions. Third Party resources are exempt from this rule as long as they are also available for usage/purchase by other participants.
- The usage of generative AI for any part of your submission is prohibited! Humans must illustrate, write, program, etc every part of your submission!
- Your jam submissions must be made freely available during the month of October.
Can I submit my (Other Game Jam) Jam submission too?
As long as it fits the above criteria and was created within the same time span as this jam, then yes!
Are you looking for judges?
Yes! Inquire on our Discord Server or at Nai@SpooktoberVNJam.com
Can I charge for my submission?
We expect that people be allowed to stream and consume the content during the month of October freely. If you'd like to add a price after October 31st, we won't object.
Who owns my game jam submission?
We claim no ownership of any jam game submitted. By submitting to the Spooktober Visual Novel Jam, you do agree to allow the hosts of Spooktober Visual Novel Jam and its sponsors to use all or part of your submissions for jam promotion and sponsorship news purposes. (It's usually just a screen shot or short video clip)
Where can I ask for feedback on x, y, z?
If you have any concerns about your jam submission, whether it be a rule based on or you'd just like some feedback on improving it before submitting, check out our Discord server.
What are some things I can do to impress the judges?
1. Test your game before submitting! Most entries that do not make it into the short list crash, have typos or other visual bugs.
2. Represent the jam in your submissions! Include the Spooktober Visual Novel Jam 2024 logo as a splash screen. It's a small detail that not only saves the judges time in qualifying your entries, it also shows off your competition pride!
3. Winners credit their help! Credit your team members on your submission page. If you are the only member, credit yourself as a sole developer.
4. Be mindful of your loudness! Consider having someone master your audio prior to submission. Especially your on-launch sounds and title music!
5. Be mindful of standard features! Save/Load functionality, skip previously read and automatic progressing of text are usually a good idea to include and come pre-built into many visual novel engines and tool kits!
We are still seeking sponsors for this year's Spooktober Visual Novel Jam! If you are interested in sponsoring the Spooktober Visual Novel Jam and reaching hundreds of passionate visual novel developers and related professionals, please reach out to Nai@SpooktoberVNJam.com!
Prizes are determined by sponsor contributions and will be announced alongside of this year's sponsors!