Jam Favorites: Self-Care Jam 2

There are a ton of game jams happening online at any point during the year. Many of these jams follow a theme and a timeframe, giving developers the challenge of creating a game with the restrictions around a specific jam. I am able to record loads of these games for each and almost every game jam. As I record them all, I pick out games that stand out to me, and games that I love from each individual jam. This article contains the games I love from the Self-Care Jam 2.

The Self-Care Jam 2 was a jam focused around creating anything — poems, games, pictures, songs… whatever you’d enjoy making and others would enjoy creating. This was not competitive; it was a no-pressure jam to help people focus on creating something just for you. I’ve played through each of the submitted games in my compilation video series and below are a few of my favorites, in a random order.

Make it Last by Strawberry Dagger Studio

Make it Last is a touching and adorable narrative-driven game which takes you through the life of two boys. The story starts with them as children — the way they interact with the world and grow up with their parents. It gives you a depth in who they are and what their lives have been like thus far. Neither Harvey Champman nor Jordan Min know each other — they both have lived quite long and different lives. Eventually, they meet.

And they fall in love and start a life together. Once you are done learning about their backstory, you get to be a part of their present lives. Jordan and Harvey live together — they have a wonderful daughter, and tonight she is coming home for dinner with her boyfriend. It seems like Harvey is planning something for Jordan, but you are unsure what. Either way, it sounds exciting, and you get to meet your daughter’s boyfriend tonight as well. Make it Last is a wonderfully written game following a really lovely relationship.

Beach Dog by Dom2D

Beach Dog is an adorable little game where you play a doggo, exploring around the local area. Your human is at the beach — you can’t really remember where it was, but you aren’t worried. Instead, you can chase some birds, grab some seeds and check out some flowers. You can even find your ball, your super-lovely ball!

This world is quite small, however it is a really relaxing game to play around with. Being a carefree dog, one not worried about anything, just exploring and interacting with the world… I found Beach Dog to be a lovely way to spend five minutes.

Emo Lemon by Diego C. Torguet

Emo Lemon has you playing a lemon who doesn’t understand other lemons. Instead of focusing on the things you don’t understand, you have decided to explore around and complete a list of tasks to make you happier. These tasks can all be completed on the island: meditating, expressing yourself, treating your family. You can roll around the island, as a lemon, looking to complete these tasks.

You can have a really good time just rolling around — and you can even yell if you feel like it. As you complete tasks, you become happier and get to cross them off your list. This is pretty dang satisfying — you can really get a lot done in this little world.

Pampering Panda by Prawlette

Pampering Panda is a wonderful tool that helps you understand what you need to do to take care of yourself. With the help of a very lovely panda, you can talk about your feelings, find a task you need to do to help your mental space and just breath along with something. Each time you open the game, you can start it and be reminded that self-care is good. Or you can skip to episodes, to get right to what needs to be corrected.

As you define your feelings and spend time taking care of yourself, you are rewarded with badges. This panda that helps you along is full of useful advice and the wonderful things it says. Paired with relaxing music, Pampering Panda is a wonderful resource for those who need a little extra support when taking care of themselves.

There are various other wonderful games entered in the Self-Care Jam 2, which you can see here.