Procedural Death Jam! (Benefiting OpenGameArt)

When Steam launched its tagging system, a new genre was born: “Procedural Death Labyrinth,” a new way to describe roguelike-spinoffs like Spelunky and Rogue Legacy without resorting to the awkward terms “Rogue-Like-LIKE” and “Rogue-LITE.” (PDL’s on steam)
 

Lars Doucet, the creator of the term, is teaming up with OpenGameArt.org, a site that collects freely licensed art assets for indie game developers, to launch Procedural Death Jam, a 1-week competition running parallel to the popular 7-day roguelike challenge. The events aren’t competing with one another, but cross-promoting instead.

“To be clear, PDL is not meant to replace RogueLike” says Doucet. “We’re just looking to replace RogueLike-LIKE, etc. As I said in my article, I think people should keep saying RogueLike as much as they LikeLike. All we’re trying to do is give this spin-off genre its own banner to march under.”

The Jam will last for 7 days and the rules stipulate that games showcase Procedural Generation and PermaDeath, though Labyrinthine level structure is optional. Also, unlike OpenGameArt’s last game jam, The Liberated Pixel Cup, closed-source games and art assets are more then welcome, so long as the entrant has the rights to use them.

Voting will be modeled after popular game jam Ludum Dare, where awards are voted on by entrants. The awards themselves are purely for bragging rights (no cash or prizes), and include “Best Game”, “Best Open Art Submission”, as well as zany fare like “The Plucked Chicken Award”, which recognizes the best flagrant subversion of the theme, a nod to Diogenes the Cynic and the general spirit of breaking out of existing genre categories.

More information about the jam can be found at http://proceduraldeathjam.com/, and information about the term PDL and its history can be found at http://www.proceduraldeathlabyrinth.com

Thanks for your time,

Lars Doucet (www.leveluplabs.com)

Bart Kelsey (www.opengameart.org)

http://opengameart.org/content/accouncing-the-procedural-death-jam