Pulse Pounding Gay Planets: A Weekend of Game Jams

It’s only the first week of April, but already things are busy with a capital B! In fact, there are not one, but two awesome game jams happening this weekend, and they’re both very much up my alley, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to spread the word.

First up is the Pulse Pounding, Heart Stopping Dating Sim Jam, which not only has one of the best game jam names I’ve ever heard, but it’s centered around one of my favorite game genres, as well. The full details are here, but basically anyone and everyone is encouraged to take part using simple, free programs such as Twine and Ren’Py and to post their work online using the tag #PPHSJam on Twitter and Tumblr.

My favorite part of the jam is that the curator Madam Luna (a very talented lady, I might add!) has decided to leave what constitutes a dating sim open-ended, so the sky’s the limit! The term “dating sim”  is actually a little problematic, as I find it implies some kind of stat management, or at least more involved gameplay than your usual Choose Your Adventure-style visual novel, but by not defining the term, Madam Luna has enabled virtually anyone to participate.

Next we have MIT Game Lab’s QUILTBAG Jam, which will take place on the 6th and features a very special guest… Christine Love of Analogue: A Hate Story fame! The theme will be “gay planet,” which sounds very fun indeed. More information can be found on the MIT page, which also assures potential participants that you don’t have to be local to attend in spirit! There’s a lot of crossover between the two jams, so hopefully we’ll see some dating sim games that explore queer themes early next week.

And now, I have a little announcement to make: I’m going to be participating in the PPHS Dating Sim Jam! I’ve never made a game in my life, but I’ve done some research on Twine over the course of the week and think I’m ready to take the plunge. I’m certain whatever I come up with will be a dinky little text adventure that may or may not even really qualify as a “dating sim,” but that’s what jams like these are for, right? I hope to tweet about my progress throughout the weekend, and Shaun has agreed to offer moral support, so be sure to follow me on Twitter if you want to stay up to date with my dating sim antics. Basically, I’m hoping that putting my intentions in writing will actually push me to finish something! Expect a follow-up post sometime next week where I’ll (hopefully) share the final product and talk about the experience!

Is anyone else going to be joining in the fun? Even if you’re not, do you have any rad ideas for dating sim games or something that could fall under the “gay planet” theme? Share them in the comments, and I promise not to steal!

About Anne

Also known as apricotsushi. Anne can be written with the kanji for apricot (杏), and sushi was the most quintessentially Japanese thing I could think of when I was 13, resulting in my goofy, albeit memorable, nickname.

14 thoughts on “Pulse Pounding Gay Planets: A Weekend of Game Jams”

  2. I’m going to participate! Although I’m not sure in which, or if one game I make can’t count for both… Or …. Well, we’ll see what happens :P. Twine is a very lovely little program to use so I hope you have fun with it! It’s definitely easier than other options such as Ren’py. You can even add images to Twine stories too. Good luck with your dating sim :).

  4. Oh, good luck! I love me some dating sims and if I weren’t already engrossed in my “long-term” game-making project I might consider participating in this! 🙂

  5. This is awesome, Anne! Really can’t wait to see what you’re able to come up with. You’re going to share at least screenshots or something with us, right?

  7. Yay! I’m really excited to see what you make! Will you be working with Twine, too, or using Ren’Py (or something else?)

  8. Yippee! I’m a little intimidated by Ren’Py as I’m under the impression you need to have art assets, whereas Twine games can be 100% text-based if you want. Really glad you decided to jump on board, though!

  10. Well, since it’s likely to be 100% text-based, I’ll probably just chat about the experience and share my process, but yeah! I’ll be very open about the whole thing, especially my failures (which I’m sure there will be many) 😉

  12. Thanks Daniel, Anna Anthropy’s tutorial is the exact one I’m using! I’m working on writing out the script first, and then I’ll figure out all the nuts and bolts. I already know some HTML, so you’ve reassured me that I can manage 😉

  13. I’m doing mine mostly text based. I really wanted the text control Renpy allows (so I can do line, click, line, click etc) and various things like that. Always enjoyed that aspect to VNs as a medium really, so could hardly write one without that…

    I’ve set up renpy to be in nvl mode, which basically just means TEXT ALL OVER THE SCREEN, so no art assets for me. Although… As I’m doing this I’m thinking it would be trivial to use some photographs as backgrounds.

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