🔞 ADULT: Jam/shroomjam - Complete Album!
Welcome to ShroomJam 2025!
The official Vinesauce game jam is back for a 2nd time! You'll have 1 week to make a game based on a theme relating to the stream. Whatever we get will be judged by the judging team, with the best ones going into packs for the sauceman himself to play on stream!
Scroll down to read the rules and see more info!
What's the theme?
This year's theme is "Retro TV"! Think analog video, VHS recordings, Saturday morning cartoons, weird commercials and whatever else reminds you of the TV of years gone by. There's a lot of ways this theme can be interpreted, so do something interesting!
We're also introducing a CURVEBALL this year, an object you need to include somewhere in your game! This time, you need to put a duck somewhere. It can be an actual duck, a rubber duck, one duck, multiple ducks, big, small, just some sort of duck! Quack!
Rules
Failing to follow these rules will have your game disqualified until the issue is resolved.
If you need clarification on one of these rules, click the triangle on the left for a more detailed description. If you're still not sure after that, ask about it over on the community page!
No NSFW content.
• This is technically covered by the Twitch TOS rule, but just to be clear, your submission can't contain any NSFW content. This includes (but is not limited to) nudity, sexual content, and extreme gore.Add a loud sound and/or flashing images warning if needed.
• If your game has any flashing effects or loud sounds, make sure a warning is shown when the game starts before either happens.Your game must have a downloadable Windows 10/11 version.
• The game must have a free downloadable version that runs natively on Windows 10/11. That being said, please still provide a web build if you can, it makes checking and judging a whole lot easier.Keep it fun!
• This game jam is for fun, so keep it fun. No notably divisive, political or heavy topics are allowed.You can't work on your game before the submission window.
• Code and assets specifically for your game can't be made before the submission window starts. Dependancies and re-using small chunks from previous projects is allowed.Credit whatever you use.
• Make sure to include the proper credits for any assets used in your game, either within the game itself or on the game page.Use the theme and include the curveball.
• You're game must incorporate the theme revealed on jam start in some way, ideally in a way integral to the gameplay. The curveball object also needs to be somewhere visible in-game.Text must be in English by default.
• If your game has text, it needs to be in English by default. Even broken Google-translated English works, as-long as our primarily English-speaking team can understand it.Maximum team size is 3 people.
• You can only have 3 people max contributing to the same project, so that solo devs and smaller teams still have a good chance. You can also have people outside of your team playtest the game, but they can't contribute to it in any other way.No AI.
• Outside of references to existing AI-generated things, no AI-generated assets can be used in your submission. If you're suspected of using AI, you'll be asked to prove otherwise. Note that many stock image and music sites include AI-generated content, so be careful.Videogames only.
• As much as we'd love to allow things like mods, TTRPGs, stories and music, it doesn't make sense to include those in this jam.No significant changes during voting.
• Updating your game during the voting period is allowed, but only for small things like bug fixes, small quality-of-life improvements and similar. Adding large amounts of new content or making significant changes to the game in ways that noticeably change the gameplay is not allowed until after the voting period.No multi-jam submissions.
• Games submitted to this jam can't be submitted to any other jams. This is mainly to catch out spam-submissions and make sure games fit the theme well.Test your game.
• If your game doesn't work and we can't play it, we can't judge it. Make sure your game actually works before submitting.Make sure it's streamable.
• As the whole point of this jam is for the best games to be played on-stream, make sure your game can easily be captured in OBS.Don't make jokes at actual people's expense.
• As fun as it is to think that all of your favourite streamers are cartoon characters, they're real people with real lives, and it's important to keep that in mind and respect that. Taking things too far will get your submission disqualified.No ads.
• Don't put actual paid ads (such as Google Ads or paid sponsorship links) in your game. Using footage or images from ads as part of the game is allowed, as-long as you're not being paid to promote the product (for example, having some old commercials playing on a TV somewhere).Mods aren't required to give a reason for disqualification.
• Usually, if your submission gets disqualified, a mod will give you a reason so you can fix it, however they aren't obligated to do so.Judging Criteria
Entertainment
• How fun is the game to play? How fun would it be to watch on-stream? Games that are both fun to play and watch will get a high Entertainment rating. Entertainment factors into the final total score a bit more than the other criteria, since it's the most important!Creativity
• How interesting and original is the game? What creative ways have mechanics been implemented? Games full of interesting and novel ideas will get a high Creativity rating.Visuals
• How does the game look? How polished are the visuals? Games with well-done and polished visuals will get a high Visuals rating.Audio
• How does the game sound? How well-done is the music and sound design? Games with well-made sound design and good music will get a high Audio rating.Theme Use
• How much does the game use the jam's theme? How integrated is the theme into the gameplay? Games that take the theme and run with it, implementing it deeply into the base mechanics, will get a high Theme Use rating.Duck
• Quack! How good is the duck, this year's curveball object? How's the quack? How well-groomed are it's feathers (if it has any)? Is it a particularly good duck?The ratings given will get averaged together to produce a final score, determining the entry's position in the overall ranking. The overall ranking doesn't determine what makes it into packs or not, but it can be a pretty good indicator.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a web build required?
No, but it's heavily encouraged. Web builds get judging priority, since they're safer and easier to access, not to mention the web version can be used as a backup if there's a problem running the downloaded version.
Is there a prize?
While the idea has been brought up on occasion, we don't currently have any plans to offer prizes for the jam. This might change between jams, maybe even during the course of this jam, but don't go into this expecting anything.
How does the judging work?
Can I submit late?
Yes! The late submission window lasts 12 hours after the start of the voting period. A post will be created in the community tab at some point where you can post a link to your game, in return getting a special link that lets you submit it late.
What about viruses?
As with anything where people can submit programs, there IS a risk of a virus or other malicious program being submitted. For security, everything downloadable gets scanned, tested and monitored to make sure nothing nasty is hiding in there.
Where do I talk about the jam? Is there a Discord server?
There isn't a public Discord server for this jam, however we do have a community tab here on Itch, which is like a big forum where you can ask questions, build teams, or just generally talk about the jam.
How long does voting take?
The voting period usually lasts 2 weeks, however it may be extended depending on how many submissions we get. After that, some amount of extra time is needed for packs to be sorted before the games show up on-stream.
Are you looking for judges?
We won't allow just anyone to judge for obvious reasons, but we can always use more judges in a jam of this size. If you've worked with Vinny in the past and think you'd be up to help judge, feel free to shoot Joe a DM on Bluesky.
Is this jam about Vinny specifically or all of the Vinesauce streamers?
Since the full Vinesauce team isn't really a thing anymore, this jam is specifically about Vinny. That being said, you can reference whatever you want, so don't feel like you're not allowed to reference the other streamers. Joel has his own jam in the form of FrenJam, which runs in early April.
Why only 1 week?
Making development time this short prevents people submitting games that are too long, that way we can actually get the games judged and vetted within a reasonable time despite our small team. If the timing doesn't work for you, there are plenty of other jams you can join.
Can I provide keys/subscriptions/prizes to the winners? (+ other partnerships)
As grateful as we are for the offers, it's a hard no for various reasons, mainly that such partnerships wouldn't really work for the spirit of the jam.
Links
Vinesauce Website |
Vinesauce Linktree |
PotaJoe Website
ShroomJam 2024
Credits
Hosts
PotaJoe
Vinesauce
Judges & Moderators
Bees With Chainsaws
Johney
Kekulism
Madclown55
McDanooj Joey
ShrineFox
SinCityAssassin
Wrinklynewt
Yoshitura
Page Design
Page Design & CSS - PotaJoe
Logo Font - Typesauce by Maxi Gamer
Extra Page Design Assistance - Yoshitura
