Tower Jam aims to sing songs of unsung heroes

Game jams are all the rage these days, whether it's a MoJam, a MolyJam or a Boob Jam, all of them designed to offer us games based around something a bit different. Often it's simply titles created in short periods of time, but they're often built around a central theme, one that can break us out of the cycle of AAA hits. Tower Jam is one such game jam and it's looking to focus not on some abstract word or concept, but some of the neglected characters of our gaming past. Ever saved a damsel in distress? Protected some poorly pathed AI through a horrible escort mission? Seen a superfluous love interest killed off in the opening act?

What if these guys finally did something with their lives and became the stars in their own story? That's what Tower Jam wants to do.

“Tower Jam is a game jam inspired by characters in video games who don't have agency: a love interest sequestered in a tower, a child who must be protected, a parent left behind,” reads the official site. “What if we created games from the perspectives of these characters? What are their stories like?”

Why not? Source: dzema224

It's not necessarily just replacing our usual heroes with a new skin either. While the Jam is loose enough that breaking out of Princess Peach's tower room and escaping herself is in the spirit of the Jam, the initial spark behind this idea was to have you play her waiting to be saved. Perhaps the game is a time management one, where you stave off boredom, loneliness or insanity in a tower where you are under sexual threat from a fire breathing dinosaur?

Or how about playing the end boss in a game? Just waiting around all day, sending out minions and watching them be crushed under the heel of the “hero.” The growing fear and anger that soon you might be toppled from power. Maybe you could play the aliens in XCOM, sending down peaceful probes to earth and finding out that violent, technologically backwards apes are somehow able to gun down your peaceful ambassadors.

There's a lot of possibility here and a very wide scope for some interesting games.

The Jam is open now and accepting games, with all submissions (within reason) being posted up for anyone to download. It'll be running throughout September, so get your submissions in as soon as possible – though late finishers may also be added further down the line.

KitGuru Says: The only game making I've ever done is writing added encounters for the FTL Infinite Space mod and a couple of Invasion maps I made for Unreal Tournament 2004 back in the day, but maybe one of you guys could make something good here? Throw out some ideas on the KG Facebook page, let us know what you think. [Thanks Wired]

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