Spooktober VN Jam
 Key art for Spooktober 2022 | |
| Years active | 2019 to Present |
|---|---|
| Host | Remort Studios |
| Duration | 1 month (September) |
| Theme | Spooky, Horror, Halloween, non-NSFW |
| Prior work | Not allowed |
| Most entries | 210 (2023) |
| Latest URL | https://itch.io/jam/spooktober-2023 |
The Spooktober VN Jam is an annual event where participants create a visual novel themed around Halloween and/or a "spooky" or horror theme during the month of September. Entries are judged and prizes are awarded to winning participants in October.
The jam is run and strongly promoted by the DevTalk VN developer community, and preparations for the jam start months in advance. The jam's official itch page allowing participants to join is usually published about 1 month prior to the start.
History
The first Spooktober VN Jam took place in October 2019 and the event has grown each year since. 2020 saw a shift to September so that entries were available to play during Halloween season in October.
In 2021, Spooktober became the first itch.io VN jam to produce more VN entries than NaNoRenO in a given year.
Spooktober 2023 became the largest visual novel jam ever by a significant margin, with 1097 participants and 210 entries. It also had the largest total prize pot of any VN jam at $7,500 across several categories & awards.
Rules
The jam's main rules are:
- work on final assets can only start within the jam period
- adherence to theme of Halloween, horror, etc.
- free availability of VN for the judging period
- no NSFW content / appropriate content warnings
- Late submissions may be allowed on a case by case basis, but are not eligible for judging or prizes.
Overview & Process
Before the jam begins, participants may sign up, form teams, and plan for story, art, or other aspects of the game. Work on final in-game assets may not be started before the official beginning of the jam. Two Meet and Greets are typically organized in the Devtalk Discord server to facilitate team creation and recruitment.
After the jam submission period is finished, judging begins. To ensure fair treatment of all entries, Judges do not consider updates or changes to games that occur after the jam ends. The judging process typically involves individual shortlists, and typically not every judge will play every submission. Once a consensus on the winners is achieved, the results are published on the jam page, and announced though various other channels.
There are no set overall judging criteria, however each year judges will introduce themselves and present their personal focus points and judging values, e.g. focus on emotional impact, self-expression, or overall cohesiveness.
While judging proceeds, DevTalk promotes and facilitates post-jam activities such as encouraging playing and commenting on entries, hosting or highlighting people's Let's Play streams, encouraging reviews, and working to increase the overall visibility of the jam and its VNs.
| Year | Judging Team |
|---|---|
| 2023 | Arimia, Chaplin, Coda, Vimi, RedOwl |
| 2022 | Nai, Arimia, HusbandoGoddess, John, Chaplin |
| 2021 | Nai, Arimia, Chloe, TundraFlame, Fra |
| 2020 | Nai, Arimia |
| 2019 | Nai, Arimia |
Categories and Awards
The award categories for Spooktober may vary from year to year. In addition to a "grand prize" awarded to the top three VNs, secondary prizes in various categories may be awarded. The amounts and types of prizes can also vary from year to year, even in the same category, as they are often dependent on sponsorship agreements made for that year. Prizes can be monetary, or license keys for software.
Judge Favorite
This is the most prestigious Spooktober award and is given by the judges for the "best overall" VNs in the form of a "top three" ranked order.
| Year | 1st place | 2nd place | 3rd place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Model Employee | The Final Prize is Soup | Reaplaced |
| 2022 | Our Fantastic Wonderland | Elevator Hitch | All That (Probably) Glitters |
| 2021 | StillWater | Stardander Revenant | Romancing Flesh |
| 2020 | Therapy with Dr. Albert Krueger | Last Meal at Cafe Mori | Night of the Lesbian Vampires |
| 2019 | Not It | (not awarded) | (not awarded) |
Judge Shortlist
Before the final three titles of the Judge Favorite award are established, a selection of candidates is picked by the judges from the entirety of the submission pool. These include the future Judge Favorite titles.
| Year | Count | Titles |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 53/210 (25%) |
Angel Hare's Learning Adventure, Are We Still Friends?, Ball of the Black Cat, Beary the Hatchet, Burdock, Counterpart, Curse of the Juniper Tree, Dead Set, Death is a Guest, DISCONNECT, Eldritch Idol, Eva and the Fallen Star, Fear Me: The Silent, Freak The Town, Ghostly Delights, Goblet of Mercy, Hardships Of A Vampire, Head Over Heels, How May I Direct Your Curse, I love my follower (count), Imago Dirge, It's Inside, Living With Ghosts, Long Time No See, Model Employee, Mycopsychosys, NG: Cursed in Love!?, No Time For Mercy, Please don't trust me, protoViolence, Reaplaced, Red Zero, Remnants: Counsel of the Dead, Satan is an Astronaut, Scarlett's Sorrows, Sempre, Shared Beauty, So Below, Stares Back, The Final Prize is Soup, The House on Limbo Lane, The Killer at Moonlight, The Phantom of the Black Rose Revue: Act 1, The Widow's Shadow, The Wrong Evelyn, This Magical Girl is a B⭐tch [ACT 1], Trashwing Crowchild, Trick or Treat, Undead Air, UNDERSTUDY, Undo the Mustache Curse Witch!, WITCHAROO, Wrong Turn |
| 2022 | 32/160 (20%) |
All That (Probably) Glitters, Autumn Spirit, Beneath the Crushing Sky, Blue Thistle Ghosts, Cal's Costume Conundrum!!, Confessions Amongst the Poppies, Corvus Clueless, Curse in Bloom, Don't Die Alone, Elevator Hitch, Girlfriend Simulator, L.S.D.s --- AKA: Love-Sucking Demons, Lachesis ∨ Atropos, Loose Oddities and Entities, Melissa :heart:, Nameless - The Departed Cycle, Nowhereplatz U3, Offal, Our Fantastic Wonderland, Panacea: Rebirth, Parasite in Love, The Cryptic Caper, The Graveyard Shift, The Madness Of [Redacted], Vivica's Heart, VVVVV, waterborne: immersion (waterborne 2), Who Killed BigFoot?, Wilting Regrets, World of You, Yokai Detective Kou |
| 2021 | 39/112 (35%) |
All That Ales Yew, Belladonna, Candy Scabs, The Case of the Serialized Killer, DUFE: Masquerade, Falling Stars, Frightwood, Ghost Switch, Graveyard Girls, The haunting of my childhood mall, Hearts & Hexes, The Housemate, Hush Little Lily, InSomno, Jill O’ Lantern: First Slice, Last One There, Limbo Line, The Life We’ve Chosen, Misty Hollow, Mitra, Mothdude, Moths to a Flame, Paranormal Buddies, Perfection Paper-thin, Pumpkin Face, Pusoy Dos, The Raven, Romancing Flesh, Scary Gourmet, Silverblood, The Spider and the Bride, Stardander Revenant, Stillwater, Tales of Misteria, To All the Wolves I’ve Slain, Up All Night: Rumination, waterborne, Wolfskin’s Curse, Who Is the Red Queen? |
| 2020 | (0) | (not awarded) |
| 2019 | (0) | (not awarded) |
Best Cinematography / Scene Presentation
| Year | 1st place | Nominated |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | DISCONNECT | DISCONNECT, protoViolence, The Final Prize is Soup, First Do No Harm, Shared Beauty, The Widow's Shadow |
| 2022 | Our Fantastic Wonderland | Our Fantastic Wonderland, LSD AKA Love Sucking Demons. |
| 2021 | Romancing Flesh | (not awarded) |
| 2020 | (not awarded) | (not awarded) |
| 2019 | (not awarded) | (not awarded) |
Best Voice Actor / Human Voice Performance
| Year | 1st place | Nominated |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Davon Oliver | Taylor Fernandez, Davon Oliver, Lauren Kong, Pamela Santos |
| 2022 | Rachel Schumacher | Trickle, Rachel Schumacher, Vera Tan |
| 2021 | Paradoxxxical | (not awarded) |
| 2020 | Nick Chang | (not awarded) |
| 2019 | (not awarded) | (not awarded) |
Best Character Design
| Year | 1st place | Nominated |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Pearl (Beary the Hatchet) | Penny (Model Employee), Tabbie (This Magical Girl is a Btch: Act 1), Lydia (Ghostly Delights), Mio (Reaplaced), Pearl (Beary the Hatchet), Plum (Love, Pumpkin, and Other Complications), Mirabell (Us Three Joined by Flesh), Kara (Trick or Treat), Letty (DISCONNECT), Cassie Cortega (Satan is an Astronaut) |
| 2022 | (not awarded) | (not awarded) |
| 2021 | (not awarded) | (not awarded) |
| 2020 | (not awarded) | (not awarded) |
| 2019 | (not awarded) | (not awarded) |
Best Soundtrack / Score
| Year | 1st place | Nominated |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Reaplaced | Reaplaced, Satan is an Astronaut, Undead Air, Phantom of the Black Rose Revue: Act 1, Model Employee |
| 2022 | Parasite in Love | Parasite in Love, Autumn Spirit, Vivica's Heart |
| 2021 | (not awarded) | (not awarded) |
| 2020 | (not awarded) | (not awarded) |
| 2019 | (not awarded) | (not awarded) |
Best 3D Character Model
| Year | Winner |
|---|---|
| 2023 | First Do No Harm |
| 2022 | (not awarded) |
| 2021 | (not awarded) |
| 2020 | (not awarded) |
| 2019 | (not awarded) |
Best Itch.IO Page
| Year | 1st place | Nominated |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Shared Beauty | Satan is an Astronaut, Shared Beauty, DISCONNECT, The Final Prize is Soup, Sea Fever, NG: Cursed in Love?!, Model Employee |
| 2022 | (not awarded) | (not awarded) |
| 2021 | (not awarded) | (not awarded) |
| 2020 | (not awarded) | (not awarded) |
| 2019 | (not awarded) | (not awarded) |
Itch.io Favorite / Public vote
This is the result of the public voting system. The system follows the itch.io 5-star system, and is calculated with the top result being the highest average score, regardless of the amount of ratings received. In 2019 the results for this section ("community favorite") were announced with Not It (score 4,89 via 9 votes) in 1st place before Halloween Hearts and Bliss Cafe (both scoring 5,00 with 2 votes each) because of the weight of the quantity of votes. In 2022 the winner was not determined by the jam's scoring system as the custom categories were created to add to the spooky nature of the jam rather than offer precise feedback to elements of the submissions, and the single winner was established via the popularity sorting rank on the submissions page.
This overview lists the top three places only, following only the average score (not weighing in the amount of votes)
| Year | 1st place | 2nd place | 3rd place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | (not awarded) | (not awarded) | (not awarded) |
| 2022 | Melissa (most popular) |
(not awarded) | (not awarded) |
| 2021 | Mitra (score 5,000 via 10 votes) |
The Case of The Serialized Killer (score 4,941 via 51 votes) |
Up All Night: Rumination (score 4,929 via 14 votes) |
| 2020 | (not awarded) | (not awarded) | (not awarded) |
| 2019 | Halloween Hearts + Bliss Cafe (score 5,000 via 2 votes) |
Not It (score 4,889 via 9 votes) | |
Thumbnail
Award for the best thumbnail image on the submission's itch.io page.
| Year | 1st place | 2nd place | 3rd place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | (not awarded) | (not awarded) | (not awarded) |
| 2022 | Yokai Detective Kou | (not awarded) | (not awarded) |
| 2021 | DUFE: Masquerade | (not awarded) | (not awarded) |
| 2020 | Therapy with Dr. Albert Krueger | Bewitched Hearts | Oh! Terry! |
| 2019 | It's Just The End of the World, Love | (not awarded) | (not awarded) |
Logline
Award for the best log line (1-3 sentences with what the visual novel is about).
| Year | 1st place | 2nd place | 3rd place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | (not awarded) | (not awarded) | (not awarded) |
| 2022 | (not awarded) | (not awarded) | (not awarded) |
| 2021 | Wolfskin's Curse | (not awarded) | (not awarded) |
| 2020 | Up All Night | Devil's Door | Play Dead! |
| 2019 | I'm A Love Interest In my Childhood Friend's Halloween Story | (not awarded) | (not awarded) |
Monster / Costume Design
| Year | 1st place | 2nd place | 3rd place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | (not awarded) | (not awarded) | (not awarded) |
| 2022 | The Cryptic Caper | (not awarded) | (not awarded) |
| 2021 | Romancing Flesh | (not awarded) | (not awarded) |
| 2020 | What Grows in the Night | House | Last Meal at Cafe Mori |
| 2019 | Bliss Cafe | (not awarded) | (not awarded) |
Motif
Awarded for the best recurring motifs in submitted visual novels.
| Year | 1st place |
|---|---|
| 2023 | (not awarded) |
| 2022 | (not awarded) |
| 2021 | (not awarded) |
| 2020 | (not awarded) |
| 2019 | I'm A Love Interest In My Childhood Friend's Halloween Story |
Best Unity Submission
| Year | 1st place |
|---|---|
| 2023 | (not awarded) |
| 2022 | (not awarded) |
| 2021 | (not awarded) |
| 2020 | Soft Drizzle: B-Track |
| 2019 | (not awarded) |
Best Monster Performance
| Year | 1st place |
|---|---|
| 2023 | (not awarded) |
| 2022 | (not awarded) |
| 2021 | (not awarded) |
| 2020 | MAHO Cody |
| 2019 | (not awarded) |
Best Live Streamed Performance
| Year | 1st place |
|---|---|
| 2023 | (not awarded) |
| 2022 | (not awarded) |
| 2021 | Project Flawesome |
| 2020 | Tundra Flame |
| 2019 | (not awarded) |
External Links
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