Coding does not count towards the word count.

For Ren’Py VN’s, if someone accuses you of being under 2,000 words or circumventing the requirement, we can easily use a function to count how many words of dialogue there are along with adding up the number of times characters’ names are being displayed.

For other engines, if someone accuses you of being under 2,000 words or circumventing the requirement, an Administrator will play the VN and manually count the number of words.

Remember that you are innocent until proven guilty in these scenarios.

No, they do not have to be the one that stands out more than every other character in the game. That would be too subjective to enforce.

They do need to “be a prominent character—protagonist NOT included—to the overall narrative for the majority of the story” as in you can’t just have a wolf set off the events of the story for them not be involved for the rest of it. They need to be important to the plot.

IP means Intellectual Property.

In the context of this Jam, it means a story and characters that came from someone’s mind.

For example, my Non-Jam VN IBWHIP, is my own Intellectual Property because I made it up.

The ever-famous Adastra Series is Howly and HAPS’s IP that they own.

Hi! The Jam Theme was voted in during 2024/Oct and will be revealed 2 weeks before the jam starts through email and social media, so remember to join the jam and follow us on social media (@MayWolfJam.bluesky.social) to stay up to date with all the latest info! 

The 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse theme was only the theme for the Wolf Sprites which was similarly suggested and voted-in by the public! You're not forced to use this theme, which is why the sprites will come with them as alts. So for example you'll be able to use Famine wearing his cute suit jacket or Warmonger without her wings. 

Similarly you won't be forced to abide by the Jam Theme however it is greatly encouraged for 2 main reasons: 

It's a criterion for the Rating Phase, and although you can request to circumvent the Rating Phase, it will surely be in the minds of the players, risking your entry seem disjointed or discordant with the rest of the entries. 

That's why the segment on the main page about the theme says: 

How you interpret the Jam Theme is up you.  The only thing it affects is one of the criteria for Rating.

Hope this answers your question, lemme know if you need any help with anything else! 

Ahhhh, yes, that was a small edit that we made to the rules a few days after making the Jam Public that we forgot to update here.

That was just because we don’t want people to use feral or non-anthropomorphic wolves.

Giving a feral/non-anthropomorphic wolf sentience will not suffice.

They should have a human silhouette/body type but if they go into a more non-human silhouette/body for the less than the majority of the story, than that is fine.

Does that answer all of your questions?