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Without further ado, here’s the theme vetted theme list, an impressive list of 25 themes out of the original 37!

Here’s the vetted HAGJ12 Theme List:

• Scientific Revolution
• Pre-Colonial Life
• Yugoslavia
• Oligarchy
• Uncensored History of Your Country
• The Fall of Empires
• The Age of Exploration
• Food & Culinary History
• Surveillance Technology
• The East India Company
• Crime and Punishment
• The Invention of Printing
• Saints' Mental Health
• The Discovery of America
• Microhistory Case Studies
• Calendars
• Survival during the Stone Age
• The Lives of English Storytellers
• Recruitment for Emancipatory Movements in the Ottoman Empire
• The North American Fur Trade
• Tower Wars between Rival Factions in medieval Bologna, Italy.
• World War 2
• Unsuccessful Betrayals
• The Consequences of Neutrality
• Timekeeping

What was removed: TL;DR:

• Repeated Themes from previous jams, as well as vague themes have been removed.
• Certain grammatical amendments were made, and two were combined with others.
• Themes that were similar or related to each other within the suggested themes list, were merged.
• Some themes were slightly re-formulated to read better.

Check out the Complete List of Suggestions and How They Were Vetted

What's Next?

Please vote for up to two themes that you like, here.

You have until the 15th of January, 16:00 GMT+1 to decide! 

The Final Theme Round will begin as soon as soon as the results are announced, on the 16th of January, 16:00 GMT+1. 

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Join us on our Discord Community for HAGJ, if you would like to discuss with other history enthusiasts and prepare for the jam!

We’ve gathered up 37 Themes (unfiltered/ungrouped)! 

Thanks to everyone that sent in a theme suggestion! 

Both vetted and unfiltered lists of themes will be released tomorrow, to signal the start of the Top 10 Themes Voting Round.  

See you then!

Join us on our Discord Community for HAGJ, if you would like to discuss with other history enthusiasts and prepare for the jam!

We tried to make the visibility something you only get with the first mask (Clair) and we did want to make more content so that you really do need to switch between masks - but we could only do this much for the jam. Good feedback though, thanks! And also - thanks for playing it!

Happy to let you know! We took it as we didn't make it obvious enough that that was intentional - so we'll keep an eye out for that. So your feedback is still valuable. :D

Thank you! I am saying this to the programmer as well - but they don't believe me. :D I just told them "Seeee!?!" after you posted this comment. We tried to be very careful with the MVP scaling, but there are still things we left out. The monster in the key collection room is actually a completely scope creep monster (I drew it for fun), and that was how it was named in the engine too for a while. Just a fun anecdote for us to share. Thanks for the feedback and for playing our game!

Yay for painless tutorials! Since this was a jam game, we didn't want to bloat the gameplay too much with exposition, but there is soo much to the 3 masks story that we have left out in this version. Glad to know that it sparked curiosity for you. Thank you very much for the feedback - the deaths can be very annoying, but it's great that you kept going regardless. :D

Thank you for still trying it, and I'm glad you still ended up enjoying bits and pieces of it!

I understand how that may appear to be a bug - honestly a thing that we could have made more obvious as being an intentional part of the gameplay - but you "can" navigate/get blocked by hidden walls (like in the item collection rooms, you get blocked by them and can end up dying if not using the correct mask) - but it was indeed intentional part of the design - just not fully fleshed out due to jam scoping. 
Glad you still enjoyed it!

Thanks! Happy to hear that!

Thank you so much for the constructive criticism! Never attempted a metroidvania before, and it was our programmer's first jam, so this was really fun for us! 

I agree that the returns could have been better implemented - returning to the main door rather than to the level - and the environment around the doors could have been more distinguishable as different places - but we ran out of time. Will definitely keep your feedback in mind for next time!

Glad you tried it, and for the feedback, thank you! 

Understandable - our viewport in-game was just made a little small. Fullscreen recommended, but  I understand your constraints. 

Will defo keep an eye out for next time - Thanks for checking it out and leaving feedback! 

Looking forward to it !

Such an ambient and immersive game! I was immediately taken in by the scenic backdrop and overall environmental design of the game. Unfortunately, beyond crouching around the houses and avoiding the raiders, I could do little. I didn’t figure out how to pick up the herbs or scrolls (despite using my mouse the way the control scheme indicated) - Would be cool to see some sort of gameplay uploaded somewhere! Seems like you guys are planning on building this game further - I look forward to seeing this grow beyond a HAGJ entry! Thank you for participating, and we hope to see you around these parts again!

It’s interesting how you’ve integrated Historical Context within the game! Very nice touch! Thank you very much for this entry, I enjoyed how strong the artistic direction and overall socio-political balancing mechanic was handled!

A quiet passage straight to a certain destination!

I liked watching the ripple trails left by the ship. 

Raising the difficulty of the voyage, as well as adjusting how long it takes to move the ship/reach the destination, would be some really nice ways to boost the overall quality of fun while playing the game.

It’s a great effort towards making your first jam game! Congrats on making it to the finish line, and thank you for making this entry! P.S. That aside, We don’t actually allow extensive AI usage on our jam -and we consider using it to generate code to toe that line, but not cross it, depending on the extent.

We are sending 1st time warnings to your team members to be careful of that for future jams. This infraction has been noted, and if this happens again, you/your team members will risk a ban for the jam.

Heyyy! (like the sfx in the game)

The most unexpected wash-up and dress-up game! The concept was funny, and the incorporation of real historical facts seamlessly integrated into the design choices made throughout the game. Was fun to play, though I could never quite get all the dirt off. Was a cool way to learn about Viking hygiene and dress code practices. 

Thanks for the entry, and for another cool game for us to play. 

The rowing mechanic was immersive and clever! I barely got a few clean strokes in though, and I think it could benefit from more feedback on what I’m doing right or wrong. I think this game clears it up - I wouldn’t last a day as a Viking! But it was a fun way to find out.

P.S. That aside, We don’t actually allow extensive AI usage on our jam -and we consider using AI to create code that you couldn’t do, and using it for multiple situations, crossing the line This fully breaks the rules, which has been stated clearly in the FAQ/Rules for the jam, as well as listed in rule-related articles in our announcements.

We are sending 1st time warnings to your team members to be careful of that for future jams. This infraction has been noted, and if this happens again, you will risk a ban for the jam. 

Clearly a card game with a lot of content and historical research behind it, well done on that front! The complexity of the gameplay is hard to navigate with the instructions having typos, and would in general benefit from a tutorial. Do you think you will work on this game further? I would be curious to know more about how the game is meant to be played.

Thank you for the entry!

Nice wordplay on the Game Title, with an interesting minimalistic take on the God Simulation genre.

The side-scroller aspect reminds me of the Kingdom games. I think it would be cool to center the main “Numbered” attacks on the game screen, and have a better view on where the arrows will land - since there is friendly fire involved. I managed to get through three checkpoints, but not the last one. 

Thank you for your entry, it was fun to play!

The sound design starts off top notch in the first levels, but gets a little too high-pitched in the shouts in the second one. I really like how tight the game’s identity feels, but noticed that there were issues like the colliders on the walls making the screen jump/character spin. More feedback on deflecting arrows would be cool!

Easily a game you could build up with more levels and content - thank you for the entry, it was really fun to play!

I like how you guys made an effort to match the game page design with the game’s artstyle. I love the sound design and soundtrack in general. The running text SFX though, is rather jarring, and I think you guys attached that SFX to the Master bus instead of the SFX bus. I tried muting each of them, and that SFX was only affected when the Master was muted.

I was surprised by how dark the game was - and it took me quite some time to figure out that it was a typing game! It would be great to have it in the description somewhere - I eventually found it in the last two words in your description. Up until it hit me, I was trying to draw the runes with my mouse!

Extremely interesting choice to swap out what was typed in with the lexicon of that time! Inspiring to see how we can tweak our design to be that much more historically accurate. Thank you for your entry!

The beginning of a potentially decent action game?

I could see the player fighting progressively down the bridge, fending off soldiers from Godwinson’s army. Thank you for your entry, and for giving it your best shot, despite art not being your forte! Cool touch with the UI toggle as well, which acts simultaneously as your Tutorial Screen. 

Thank you for the entry! Looking forward to your next one already.

Unfortunately, nothing other than the watering and cutting of plants, and the spraying of perfumes buttons. I could only create interactive animations, but no gameplay other than the narrative linearly playing out. Gameplay will arrive with an update - this was my first game made solo, I'm new to programming. ^^

Thank you!

Are you sure? There were 4 perfumes meant to be offered in the game. I don't think anyone ran into that issue before. 

Thank you!! Appreciate the comment and feedback. :D

I agree with you, this game really needs a gameplay update (and honestly, a code revamp).

It really was concepted out of the blue, but I want to make more of out of this one, so updates are due to happen.
Thanks for trying it and for the feedback! 

Ah, that's fair. Some ways to fix it include - importing it into a DAW and doing a simple pitch correction. In Godot, I'm pretty sure there is a pitch correction/change slider as well (I just saw it in passing but can look into it later sometime if you like). I'm new to coding, but these are the things I want to learn how to do too! I hope making the game gave you some nice reflections to ponder on! And you're welcome. ^^

You're absolutely right - the game needs a gameplay upgrade. Thank you for the feedback, glad you like the art. ^^

Absolutely can be a full game - especially with tweaks and new features. 
P.S. On finishing the game - no need to call me out like that! (I didn't, haha)

That is one muscular Mushlord! Gave it all the spores. The scenery and musical ambience reminds me a tad of Terraria - the tall mushroom trees, along with how chill it is. Turning the idle citizens into active members of this little cult took a while - I think an immersive tutorial would help a lot - I had some trouble getting myself started despite the instructions on your page. Ah, and the autoclick is an amazing feature - helped smooth things out for me by far! Very solid effort, and I think you did a great job, extra props for the first time going solo!

The art is pretty nice, but I didn’t really understand how to play the game! I think an immersive tutorial would help a lot in this case. The core sfx loop for the pulls sound quite nice - will you be developing this game further?

Couldn’t really collect much in terms of pollution - I think a smaller game area would have helped a lot to build out the core mechanic - the art is cute though, and the ambience is definitely there musically. I didn’t like the movement sfx with the bubbles as much, but the rest sounds good! Thank you for making it.

This game so cute! Ambience is just right, and I love the concept - would love to see more of this in the future!

I honestly enjoyed this one a lot - the sfx was hilarious, and I think what I missed was having a map or zoom out. The idea is really cool, and I think you can build on it if you wanted to. Other than that, really fun game and you did really well!

I was still trying to beat the water when I reached the win screen!

Really nice use of jump and water mechanics! Was very fluid to play! Thanks for making this.

WHERE! Did you get that cool Godot Engine splash screen! That was so cool! The choices made for SFX and Soundtrack is on point. I enjoyed all the screen transitional choices, including the plant growing scenes. I think this is the only game I’ve come across that has an achievement system. 

Do the “pickups” represent different things based on where they are farmed, or are they really different based on location? Since the images were the same, I had to ask.

I may have found a way to hack and break your game a little, but I died trying to take this screenshot of it - there was a HUGE stack of pickups that I managed to accumulate near the center of the screen by just going around the peripherals (of course, at some point, the game was starting to jitter in terms of performance since I overdid it probably). Just thought you’d like to know!

The game is great - enjoyed playing it a lot! 

Didn’t think I would get roped into learning some Japanese today! Very cute idea - I think that you have something really nice here. The ambience from the track is great, and really sets the mood as well. I like how the letters dangle on the “tree” once you complete a learning level. Great job!