cultivation, noun

1. the act of growing plants
2. the process of developing a quality or skill
3. refinement, good education and taste

Have you been waiting for your excuse to do your take on Harvest Moon, have always longed to make a child-raising sim a-la Princess Maker, or just wanted to make a Regency-era shmup? Is this the jam for you!

Make a game about cultivation however you wish to interpret the word and submit it by the deadline! An secret secondary theme will be announced at the start of the jam (so don't try to cheat by starting early!)

Your secret jam theme is HOUSEHOLD GOODS !

Your game MUST involve cultivation as a major theme. A nod to the secondary theme will be expected but you won’t be held too rigorously to it. In other words, the concept of cultivation should be fundamental to the game, the connection to “household goods” can be tenuous if you really can’t think of anything.

Congratulations to the winners!

Community Choice: Plantarium
Best Gameplay: Wide Awake in the Garden
Best Audio: Horticultist
Best Art: Ascension
Best Use of Theme: Refuse
Game of Jam: Shrooms64

You can see the results of prior jams we've hosted here!

Jam dates:  The jam begins June 10 at midnight and ends at 11:59 PM  on June 27. All times CST (GMT - 6)

Jam format: Before the start of the jam, you may form teams, create plans, set up repos, etc, but may not begin development (ie, creating code, assets, etc) until the jam officially begins. You may submit your game at any point during the development period, but no submissions will be accepted after the deadline.

Medium: valid submissions to this jam will either be software applications (something that can be run on a computer) or *tabletop format. Tabletop game submissions are subject to additional restrictions, detailed in rules section.

Joining a team Participants are strongly encouraged to team up with other entrants! Find people who complement your strengths! Looking for teammates? Come say hi in the Dogpit Discord! We also encourage you to say hi in the discord regardless and meet other chill gamedevs, artists, game audio people, voice actors, and other neat folks!

Contact @TeamDogpit or info@teamdogpit.com. Tweet your game WIPs with the hashtag #dogpitjam so we can find and retweet them!

Categories and Judging

• Game of Jam
• Best Gameplay
• Best Art
• Best Audio
• Best Use of Theme
• Community Choice

Until the start of the jam, these categories may be subject to change.

Judges are Xibanya, Hempuli, Dieting Hippo, ApproachingInfinity, Casey, Colin, and Mihai Zetta!

Jam Stream: All entries will be played live on stream at https://twitch.tv/manuelaxibanya with commentary by judges. Livestream dates will be announced after the close of submissions.

LIVESTREAM VODS HERE

JAM RULES

Failure to follow these rules will result in your removal from the jam.

• Make a game and submit it by the deadline!
• Don't work on your submission before the start of the jam. This is enforced solely by the honor system, so please respect your fellow jammers! The game you submit must be your own work.
•  Absolutely no hate speech or harassment of any kind will be permitted in entries, the Dogpit Discord server, or twitch chat.
• The game you submit to the jam must be free for a minimum of four weeks after submissions are closed.
• Software applications submitted must be playable on Windows 10 or in browser. Tabletop games submitted must be in PDF format.
• Software applications must NOT launch fullscreen by default.
• If your game has NSFW content, it must include a mode that covers up any content forbidden by Twitch's sexual content policy so that jam organizers are not banned when they stream it on twitch.

If you are submitting a tabletop game, you are subject to the following additional rules:

• No more than two pages must be required to be physically printed out.
• It is strongly encouraged to make a game that can be experienced single player. 
• If only multiplayer, the game must be possible to play with no more than 3 people, and must be playable over VOIP.  Because it is not possible for all the judges to meet in the same physical space for the foreseeable future, if the game is multiplayer-only, there may not be any mechanics that involve a player physically handling game pieces that must also be physically handled by another player.

Jam Suggestions

You don't have to do these but jam organizers would be ever so grateful if you did:

• Have a control scheme that works if the user mouses left-handed or allow rebinding controls. This is most relevant to games that use WASD-style first person movement -- if that's the case, it's suggested you allow movement with arrow keys as well.
• If there's content you really really want to have showcased on the livestream and your game is skill-based, also include a means of jumping directly to it, because Xibanya is very bad at video games.
• If you submit your game to multiple jams, you should make it very clear either in-game or on your game page just how your game follows the theme for this one because if it looks like you just submitted it indiscriminately to every jam on itch your submission will be removed. 
• Do not have any mechanics that require continuous button mashing. This is painful for people with RSIs.

FAQ

Q: I've never made a game before, can I enter?  A: Yes

Q: I'm not very good at making games, should I enter? A: Yes

Q: Can I use Gamemaker, Unity, Unreal, my own boilerplate, and/or my own engine?  A: Yes

Q: Can I reuse my own code from prior projects? A: Yes, though if you do so it would be sporting to open source that code and link it in the community Discord server so that anyone could use it if they wanted to.

Q: Can I take a game I have already made and modify it to fit the theme?  A: No

Q: What time zone determines the start and end dates?  A: Central Standard Time (CST, GMT - 6) 

Q: Can I join the jam after it has already started?  A: Yes, you can join at any time. You just have to submit a game before the deadline. 

Q: Can I work with a team?  A: Yes

Q: Can I be a member of more than one team?  A: Yes

Q: Is there a limit to the number of people that can be on the same team?  A: No

Q: Can I use open source assets, unity store assets, or other assets that are available to the general public?  A: Yes

Q: What happens if I don't submit my game in time?  A: Your game won't be judged and won't be played on the livestream. I still encourage you to keep working on the game on your own time though.

Q: Can I update my game after the end of the jam?  A: Yes but judging will be based on the copy that was submitted by the deadline.

Q: Do you even know what you're doing? A: We're pretty good at this whole jamming thing. Past jams include Games vs Nazis and Sim Jam!

Q: Can I have gore in my game? A: Yes, as long as you include a warning on the itch page and/or in the game itself so that players can decide for themselves if they want to engage with that content or not. Do not depict any specific real person who is alive today being killed. (Killing Atilla the Hun = OK, killing Justin Beiber = not OK)