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BARA JAM is a 1 month long game jam dedicated to creating male and/or male-relationship focused games that feature the "BARA" influence. So what is bara? Here are the most informative snippets as taken from Wikipedia:

"Bara - is a Japanese technical term for a genre of art and fictional media that focuses on male same-sex love usually created by gay men for a gay male audience.

Bara can vary in visual style and plot, but typically features masculine men with varying degrees of muscle, body fat, and body hair, akin to bear culture in gay culture.

- commentators sometimes refer to bara as "yaoi", but yaoi is largely created by and for women and features idealized bishōnen. - In contrast, bara is considered a subgenre - for gay males - rather than ones for female readers."

While this jam is, of course, open to all participants/audiences of any gender, please be mindful that your submissions have the characterizations of BARA which lean to containing a character(s) who are muscular, bear-like build, possibly hairy or rugged. So although Bara can mean different things to different people, a good summary of this jam is a focus on non-bishounen characters, a reflection of varied body shapes and comfortable masculinity. I will not be policing this jam strictly, but please be respectful of the theme.

Also, to be clear, bara need not have NSFW content and submissions can simply discuss themes related to the essence of bara to qualify. For example, a story centering around a non-bara character's love of bara manga would be acceptable. Here are some other great examples of titles that are BARA without the traditional leanings of bara focused on sex:

It Will Be Hard

My Brother's Husband (It's a show/manga but its spirit is appropriate)

Let's MEAT Adam (A game with muscles and sex but the focus was discussing the trappings of perceived masculinity etc.)

This jam encourages creation of all genres of games and not just visual novels.





Adapted Rules from Yaoi Game Jam 2018:

1. Your game must focus on queer relationships between men OR the queer male experience. This includes: gay, bi, trans, non-binary, aro, ace, pan, any male-identified LGBTQIA characters.

2. At least 1 of the main characters should have the essence of BARA associated with them.

3. This is an inclusive jam and anyone can join. Although uncomfortable subjects can be explored, please be considerate of the themes/material used, and fellow creators/players. Entries that promote bigotry (i.e transphobic/racism) are not allowed.

4. NSFW entries are allowed, but please indicate and flag them as such.





Further Links:

If you are new to game jams or just want a refresher on what to keep in mind during the month, you can find a lot of helpful advice on managing the workload here.



And if you want to make a visual novel but have never done that before, this post from this year's Yuri Jam has some helpful information on how to get started.

For more advice on visual novels, the Lemma Soft Forums are a good place to start and for general advice or questions you can also reach out to others here in the Bara Jam itch community or in the Bara Jam Discord.

You can also find Bara Jam on Twitter and Tumblr.