Narrat Jam 2 theme announcement

General
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Narrat Jam 2 Theme

This year, the theme is a randomly generated list of words, as well as optional diversifiers.

To give more options to people, the theme is made of 4 randomly generated words.

Your can use as a theme any of those words, all of them, none of them, or any combination of them of your choice.

The four words are:

Decay, Element, Guardian, Negotiation

Any combination is valid, so for example the theme you choose could be:

  • Just “Element”, or any of the others
  • “Decay” and “Guardian” together, or any combination
  • Any combination of 3 or all of those words
  • None of them, you’re allowed to ignore the theme and just make a game you feel like making

Diversifiers

As well as the theme words, we have a list of diversifiers. Diversifier are bonus categories which you can choose to make your game fit (they’re mostly here to add constraints or extra inspiration if desired). You can choose as many diversifiers as you want

The itch.io page for your game should list which diversifiers you chose, if any.

Feel free to ignore diversifiers if you don’t like them

  1. Plot Twist: The game has an unexpected twist that’s hard to predict

  2. Grey writing: A game where choices are uncomfortable with no obvious morally good path

  3. Wholesome game about a cat and a witch: The game has a wholesome theme and includes cats and witches

  4. Personal Experience: The game explores a personal experience related to the creator’s life

  5. Breaking the system: The game breaks the intended use of narrat, or does something clever and out of the box in general

  6. Who put politics in my game?: The game explores political topics

  7. Ultra replayable: The game includes some mechanics that make replaying multiple times particularly interesting.

  8. A bit fucked up: This is not a happy game. Let your depression or traumas out, channel your inner emo, write something morally ambiguous, I don’t know. Sometimes it can be cathartic

  9. Everyone is invited: One or more of the collaborators on this game is new to game development and this is the first released game they’re involved in the creation of

  10. “That’s just a theory, a game theory”: The game hints at some deeper secrets/lore that invites players to think about it and potentially theorise about it.

  11. History: The game relates to real-life history in some way (but can still be fiction!)

  12. Narrat Shorts: The game can be played to the end in a very short time (5 minutes maximum). It is also available on the web without downloads, and plays decently on a mobile browser.

  13. NSFW: NSFW in some form, contains adult themes or sexuality, etc. Obviously please make sure to check the rules of platforms you’re planning to publish on, and flag it as 18+ with the relevant methods of whichever platforms you post the game on

  14. Endings: This game has a particular relationship to endings in a broad sense

  15. “The bourgeois are not human”: Look, this engine was inspired by Disco Elysium, so I figured a quote from it would make a fun prompt.

  16. “In the dark times, should the stars also go out?”: Interpret that one however you feel like. Yes, it’s also from that game.

  17. Open Source: The game is open source, the game’s page should have a link to the source in some form

  18. Public Domain: The game is not only open source but also free of copyright, under a license similar to cc0 or MIT. The license must be explicitly provided with the game.

Final Note

Themes are mostly here to help with inspiration, or to force constraints that can help unblock creativity. Don’t feel forced to follow a theme strictly.

Trying to fit themes and diversifiers can be a great way to challenge yourself with constraints though.

As a reminder, here’s Narrat Jam page:

And the original narrat jam 2 forum thread:

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