ideally completed projects are to be submitted, but there is nothing wrong with submitting an incomplete game in whatever state it is at the end of the jam. dont plan to submit a demo tho, keep your projects scope in mind and make something smaller that you can complete within the timeframe provided.
In regards to the theme of psychosexual trauma; is the expectation to explore themes of how sexuality, gender identity and traumatic event related to these things and how they can affect a person or should we be focusing only on trauma relating to sexual assault/ violence? According to google the definition of psychosexual trauma is "-a profound emotional and mental response to sexual violence, assault, or ongoing abuse." but I feel like the description provided is slightly different from that.
the theme is broad on purpose. you could write about exactly what the google definition is, but its not just limited to that because psychosexual trauma can be so many things. the most important thing is that you pick the angle that you personally find interesting to tell. like yea it can be a result from abuse. it can be trauma from your gender or sexuality, being othered because youre gay or trans. it can be about the societal pressure put on you and how it shapes you as a person and how that manifests into your gender and sexuality and self. it can be how queer people inflict this on eachother. what i consider to be psychosexual trauma is a lot of things. ultimately its just characters in a story that show aspects of the middle part of a venn diagram of trauma, gender and sexuality, be it in whatever way it is.
the theme is intentionally broad, but thats because toxic yuri on its own is already so broad. but our theme serves to push people to write stories towards the types of stories we like to read and even then us judges have different ideas on what we specifically want to see
no game will be disqualified for "failing" to adhere to the theme. you write your heart out and if its a good story its a good story. its just that it happens that in the context of toxic yuri, psychosexual trauma just happens to be at the core of it and it already was the thing we were the most excited about last year, see the last year winning entries and our awards ceremony presentation
here is a quote from deaddeaddeath on the topic:
Think about it like this: how does trauma, mental, physical, emotional, inform the growth of a person's essential self and sexuality? How does one's position as an othered identity amplify the chances people have to inflict that kind of trauma? How can a person's own coping mechanisms, sexuality, identity, etc, that is a direct result of said trauma be weaponized in order to other them even further? How can people all huddled in this same bucket sort themselves into disparate arbitrary groups in an attempt climb over the bodies of those less fortunate in an attempt to escape.
Hello! A friend of mine wants to work together on a project for this jam (her first game!), but I already have a concept of my own. Would it be permissable for me to submit my own individually-created VN as well as working on one with her? I didn't see anything in the rules about this. She would be the one publishing the other game, as it is primarily her idea. Thank you in advance. :-)
please take a moment and read the rules of the jam page again, it says there very clearly that sex scenes are allowed. there are no limitations regarding what your story can be about. and idk wth youre planning to do with bluetooth controlled toys but good luck there is no rule against it. you can do anything but every visual novel will be judged as a visual novel
1- My game can ONLY have yuri romance? Or can I have a focus on yuri but also have others types of romances as options?
2- my romance options need to be humans or they can be something else? (like a eldritch horror, a fridge, hallucination, a robot, etc)
3 - my VN can also have other types of game mecanics together (as long it focus on the VN gameplay core), if it makes sense for a puzzle, a dream, etc? (like mini golf, a plataformer, a match 3, etc)
Are intersex women protagonists (always she/her pronouns!) acceptable for this? My game is also NSFW and the NSFW is heavily focused on Serena’s “shenis” if you will…
Conquest Serena fits this pretty well in a way… While Good Serena brushes it off and considers “Projekt Moon” a new start, Conquest or “Dark” Serena carries the trauma of her transformation on her shoulders and (can, via your choices) take it out on people.
