The rules of Asylum Jam are as follows:
"Join game developers challenging themselves to make a horror game on Halloween without utilizing negative mental health stereotypes in just 48 hours!"
The idea being that horror developers often trivialise—and villainise—people with mental health issues by setting their games in creepy asylums filled with murderous patients. Asylum Jam wants to prove that you can make a horror game without relying on these harmful, archaic stereotypes.
"Stigma prevents people from reaching out and seeking help," organiser Lucy Morris told Rock, Paper, Shotgun. "It makes people feel ashamed and embarrassed. Media perpetuates a lot of this stigma in the form of inaccurate and sometimes harmful stereotypes, and that’s what Asylum Jam is here for—to explore horror gaming outside of tired, negative tropes."
Asylum Jam runs from November 6-9, and will be hosted by Game Jolt.
