Guide:Your first visual novel jam

Drawing on advice from many veterans of the English visual novel space, this guide will help you choose, prepare for, participate in, and succeed in, your first visual novel jam. This guide is written for complete beginners to the visual novel development space, but intermediate developers looking to tackle their first timed jam will also find value here.

The basics

Before you start your jam adventure, there are a number of things you should think through.

What is a jam?

Main article: Visual novel jam

A visual novel jam is a set period of time where developers attempt to create and release visual novels, usually from scratch. Most jams have a theme of some sort (like Halloween or spooky, winter, or a given genre). Others have certain restrictions, such as using only one of any type of asset.

Why should I participate?

Jams are an excellent way to gain experience in making visual novels, and many visual novel veterans recommend that new developers create their first project as part of a jam. Shino generated a list of pros and cons of participating in visual novel jams:

Pros	Cons
External deadline Low money concerns Low risk experimentation Event-based publicity Meet great teammates Get experience Short-term project	Short-term project Theme constraints Distraction Lack of polish time

In general, most new developers would benefit from starting with a jam project.

You might not want to participate in a jam if:

• Factors are limiting your ability to work on a game with a strict deadline, such as many personal/work obligations or a disability
• Your project idea doesn't fit into the jam theme
• You already have an ongoing visual novel project that you don't want to disrupt

However, even these factors can be mitigated by choosing the right jam, as we'll discuss below.

Which jam is right for me?

Main article: List of ongoing visual novel jams

There are tons of jams to choose from (39 as of the time I'm writing this), so choosing which to join can be pretty intimidating!

Truly, there's no one right choice for new developers. The correct jam for you is the one you're interested in and excited about joining! At the same time, a few jams are consistently recommended as good places for newcomers to start.

• NaNoRenO (March, 1 month): The original and longest-running visual novel jam, NaNoRenO is a popular and relaxed jam where participants make a visual novel in a month - with few other restrictions and no set theme. It's a great choice because of its popularity, relatively chill atmosphere, and strong community/opportunities for support.
• One of Any Asset Jam (O2A2) (July, 10 days): With one of any asset type and one thousand words as your maximums, O2A2 is a great opportunity to create something very small. Having a finished product can be highly motivating, and it's much less of a commitment than a full one-month jam. Teams are often smaller, which can make recruitment easier.
• Winter Jam (December, 1 month): A chill (pun intended) jam that occurs in December and has a theme of "winter". The broad theme and relaxed rules make it a great starting point.

If none of these jams strike your fancy, if it's a different time of year, or if you're looking for inspiration, explore the full list of jams. There are between 4 and 8 going on during any given month, and again - the right jam for you is the one that works with your schedule and that you're excited about doing!