I am curious if a topdown metroidvania would be acceptable. I've been watching videos on youtube discussing the topic of metroidvanias and in these videos they suggest that some FPS games could be considered metroidvania games. However in the wikipedia article that was linked to this jam, they specify that it is a 2d side scroller. 

If the game has a gate blocked map, character/knowledge progression and exploration/revisiting, would that constitute a metroidvania? I am  curious, what do other people think defines the genre, specifically if it is not in the traditional side scroller format.  

The page said that metroidvanias typically are side scrollers. But the genre is not limited to it, so feel free to experiment with other layouts and views! Top-down, FPS, really anything. That debate has been brought up many time in the Discord server, and the general rule for a metroidvania that came out is "non-linear path with upgrades that change how you interact with the environment", so nothing on the view/layout!

I want to do a top-down, but time will tell.