Welcome! This is a jam for making small, colorful zine creations!
Theme
There are three parts to the theme for this jam:
- LEAN! Make something small! The definition of what is small will mean something different to different folks. The idea would be something small enough that you can make within the time limit of the jam. Maybe a 1-page thing. Maybe something bigger. My personal goal is to make something that is around 1,600 words or less.
- GREEN! Make something colorful! It doesn't have to be green. Any colors are fine. My personal goal is to make something designed to be printed on specific colored paper.
- ZINE! Make something DIY! Zines are traditionally handmade works and photocopied for small distribution. The goal is capture the spirit of zines here, while not necessarily adhering to any strict requirements. Make a collage, draw things and write words by hand, design something so someone can print and assembly your zine. It should be HUMAN MADE!
Feel free to interpret these themes however you wish and get creative!
Optional Additional Theme for inspiration: Resistance
Rules
All entries must follow these rules:
- All entries must be a physical creation. Your entry can be a TTRPG, a print-and-play game, or a zine of any other kind! This jam is not for video games, though.
- Incorporate some or all of the theme described above.
- Anything you submit must be created by you. This means no AI can be used for this jam. Also keep in mind copyright rules and ensure you give proper attributions as necessary.
- Have ZERO bigotry and hatred. No homophobia, transphobia, racism, etc will be tolerated.
- Please use content warnings in your submission if your entry contains any sensitive content.
Things you can do for this jam:
- Submit as many entries as you wish.
- Feel free to collaborate with others or work alone. Make sure everyone is properly credited for their contribution, though!
- Your submission should be a new creation that was made for this jam during the jamming period.
- Your submissions can be set as paid or PWYW. Personally, I like to set most of my games as paid with community copies available.
This is not a ranked jam. If you create something for this jam, hell yeah!
Examples and Resources
Here's some examples of some small zine games:
- Wither & Grow and The Serpent and The Spider are two games I've made before that have inspired this jam. This jam was partially made as a motivator for me to make another game in this series.
- Pretty much anything by Beth and Angel Make Games are great examples of small zine games!
- Weird Lil Goblinz and other zine games by Molomoot are some of my favorites.
Here are some zine templates by Metaparadox. She has other templates on her itch page as well.
Electric Zine Maker is a cool tool for making zines!
Check out the Print It Yourself series by Shouting Crow: Issue 1, Issue 2, Issue 3.
Here are some resources that can help make zines: fonts, templates, art, and more! Human Creations for Creative Humans
Some public domain art resources from a Skeleton Code Machine article.
Here's a video on how to fold a quarter-page zine.
Here's a video on how to fold a mini-zine.
For those that don't have access to a printer, I'm happy to test print your creation if you are making something intended to be printed. Connect with me on discord in the server link at the bottom of the jam page or email me at junkfoodcrew at gmail dot com
Thank you to Lucky Newt Games for the tips on setting up a jam. The layout of this jam description is based on their jams as well.
Feel free to join the Junk Food Games Discord to discuss the jam with other folks participating!