Roguelike. This term has been around forever, used to describe role-playing games with randomly generated levels and the ugly reality of permanent death. A sub-genre of this would be ‘roguelite’, applicable to games that only contain some elements. That word is a terrible descriptor. As such, the goal of this jam is to push a more accurate definition through the system: ‘procedural death labyrinth’.
That and to create games, of course. It may have a purpose attached, but that doesn’t mean it’s completely different from Ludum Dare, Global Game Jam or 7DRL, the latter of which overlaps with Procedural Death Jam. Intentional? You bet ya. As Lars Doucet puts it: “The events aren’t competing with one another, but cross-promoting instead.”
Neat, eh? Alright, this jam kicks off on March 8, 2014, and ends on the 15th, giving participants seven days to craft a game. The rules are, for the most part, pretty self-explanatory. But even so, I’d still recommend doing yourself the favour of going through them. Just in case. Also, unless you have a truckload of resources (assets, tools etc.) stored somewhere, this list should be bookmarked immediately. A week may sound like a long time, but as veteran jammers will tell you, it isn’t. So the less you have to create, the more time you’ll have to work on other aspects of the game.
Voting is limited to those who have submitted a game. Voting is done by approval vote, where each entrant may vote for up to (25%) of the games in each category.
As far as awards go, it’s all about purely bragging in this one, which I’m sure will be enough for some. I’m not gonna list all eleven categories here, but one in particular did catch my eye: ‘Best Minimalist Game’. I honestly can’t think of a better use of minimalism than in a roguelike/procedural death labyrinth!
Anyway, time for a brief summary: the Procedural Death Jam runs from March 8 to 15, intended to redefine ‘roguelite’ as ‘procedural death labyrinth’ (an arguably more fitting term), along with the creation of new games. Gonna be quite a week for jammers.
