@medicinestorm, yes i agree, think its essential really as its about using the great assets as much as possible that are offered by so many here, we want to see them being used, and the incentive of gaining extra rating votes  based on those assets is hopefully enough to see the jammers using the assets. :)

@redvoxel thanks, i do wonder about themes though, i suppose its a traditional thing really for game jams to have a theme, it does generate an excitement around it, but then ive seen so many devs pull out of game jams because of the theme elected, and i still feel that having a theme may isolate particular assets, or maybe drive devs to a particular genre of game, i.e we get a lot more platformers because the assets that are based on the theme are platformer plentiful. :) as you say "i think it was pretty much perfect last time" so if it isnt broken dont try to fix it, and just keep it the same with the 'art challenge' assets being a 'optional' theme, but maybe we could have a vote on the 'art challenge' themes and have only one as a obligatory theme for the jam?

just thinking.... thanks for your responses, lets see if we get anymore. :)

@Spring, yeah, that just highlights my point about having one theme. last years jam had 6 themes to choose from based on the art challenges, which were totally optional for the dev to consider when participating. think i will stick with this plan, but its good to hear peoples thoughts on it. thanks. :)

The theme isn't that important, and not all assets have to be from OGA, it's only a mimuim requirement to use them and to encourage their usage, especially the art challenges, so you can use your own resources aswel if you want to. Ultimately it's really about the assets here at OGA that I want to take centre stage, but at the same time strike a good balance where those that want to participate have options to choose how they participate and not be put off by anything. You could create assets during the jam that arn't here yet, as long as you submit them here before the jam ends then that will work as well.:) options are always good I think. :)

It seems themes can be a fickle thing. :) some want it, need it, some don't want ,not nothered by it. I suppose the way it worked last year was OK, I more than happy to do it that way again. I'm even happy for those to use a theme from a different jam altogher. I.e ludam dare as an example. I personally couldn't make a game in 48-72 hours but the themes are interesting, so why not make your game based on another jams theme,we could still rate it on those and still benefit from the OGA assets being use for it like we would are own selected themes. Just a thought.

@Spring the jam will run for 4 weeks( July 1st to July 29th) So there is time to create or edit assets. I will also announce the start of the jam 2 weeks before it starts so people can start planning/creating there assets then too. :)

Infact theres nothing stopping you all sorting out assets now if you want, but no coding until the jam officially starts. :)

Yeah, I know, sorry. July suits me best at the moment, but it could change next year. Who knows. :)

Hi, quick update on things as we are edging closer to the jam start date.(1st July) 

ive looked through the comments of the feedback received from last year and this thread and this is what is likely to happen.

* last year voting/rating was closed to those that only participated in the jam. This year it will be open for anyone to rate/vote

* the jam will still run for 4 weeks.july 1st - 29th

* themes will be optional again, based from the art challenges.

* last years mimuim requirement was 6 assets, 2 from each categorie. This year the mimuim will still be 6 assets, but they can now be from any category, or all from one category.

* as this is now open for voting/rating to all, it was suggested that it would be good to have a OGA favourite, so il introduce it this year for this jam. So you will have a winner based on the voting results and now an OGA favoriuite voted by just the OGA community aswell. Which will work by private messaging me your vote.

other than those changes, it will be pretty much the same rule wise, but il write those up ssoon, any questions for now then please comment here.

no prizes I'm afraid, just the fun of participating, I'm sure medicinestorm will sort some medals out. Maybe next year il put some money aside to actually have some prizes, but we're see then.

:)

@redvoxel yes, unless another site is preferred by others. But no one has suggested one, so I was going to stick with itch.io.:)

I haven't got any ideas myself, sadly I may not actually participate unfortunately, bummer. :( but hopefully I can submit something. I know this is a game jam, but you can do something like an visual novel, interactive book type thing instead or whatever you think would be good if games are not your thing, long as it can be downloaded on itch for rating. Sometimes it's hard to get ideas, try looking through the assets here, you may find something that sparks the imagination.:)

@spring, sorry I didn't mean for that to sound like I was just talking to you, I was actually speaking out loud, I know games are your thing.:) mine end up in a mess too, NADD was a disaster and I been developing my game for the last 4 years, started it again twice. All a learning curve. Patience and perseverance. I have learnt more about myself in the last 4 years learning game development then I have game developing.:) you can always take a positive from something you think is a mess, in fact it probably isn't a mess, maybe your just being to critical of yourself, this can hinder ideas aswell I think. :) 

I see, well don't be to critical where it can effect your development ideas.:)

NADD = Never a Doll Day.

@capbros your quite right, and thanks for the offer of testing, I believe you tested my "Monstropolis" game, and your feedback was great, was and is still appreciated. Thankfully the word 'turd' hasn't been referred to it yet, but it doesn't matter if it does. It will be my 'turd'! If I do happen to make a game for the jam, I'm going to call it 'turd' because it just sounds so funny as S.... ., have you played with 'turd' yet? Hahahaha ;) will you test my turd?

I sorry, I've lowered the tone here. I'm so tired.

ive written up the OGA favourite part. i included the 60 nday account bit as i didnt want people creating multiple accounts just for the vote. is 60 days reasonable or not?

OGA Favourite (new)

As well as your games being rated here to declare a winner, this year I have introduced the 'OGA Favourite' vote. This means that the OGA community members can vote on their personal favourite game of the jam. So if you don't win the jam itself, you could win this instead. Or you never know, you could do the double and win both! ( votes cast by private messaging me on OGA website, 1 vote per member, and only members that have had an account longer than 60 days will count)

yeah OK, how will i know that from a private message though?

oh so you mean you have to approve them before they can post and stuff? i dont remember waiting to be approved?

@capbros, your right i get what your saying, i dont want to turn people away from OGA at all, but at the same time, people could create multiple accounts to vote, and i could have an inbox of crazyness, also Medicinestorm wont want to be bogged down approving accounts all day. it could be a disaster so i thought having a filter for now would be good, and then change it next year perhaps if all goes well. But its cool if not, il happily leave it as just a private messgae for everyone. and work around that next year if needed.

capbros +1 for no account filter.

@Medicinestorm ?

OK, I shall edit out the 60 day account bit. Thank you @capbros @medicinestorm. :)

@capbros I'm not sure it does, even if it did I wouldn't have a clue how to do it.:)