DEVGAMM AWARDS

WHAT IS DEVGAMM AWARDS

DevGAMM Awards is a prestigious competition within DevGAMM conference. All the judges are the gaming industry professionals. The event is held twice a year.

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Submit Game

All Games

Submissions closed

HOW TO TAKE PART

  • Buy ticket for DevGAMM (BUSINESS or STANDARD)
  • Submit your game before April 15 using your ticket number
  • Your game will be reviewed by our judges
  • If you’re nominated you’ll get an email a week before DevGAMM
  • Visit DevGAMM Awards ceremony on May 18
  • Gain recognition, win prizes!

GAME SUBMISSIONS REQUIREMENTS

  • Games of any genre and platform are allowed
  • We don’t recommend to submit prototypes
  • Submissions are free, but you must have a ticket to the conference (1 game = 1 ticket)
  • If your game is already released, in this case, the date of release should be no earlier than April 15 2017 (a year before the submission deadline)
  • All the games (regardless of a studio size) are evaluated on a common basis
  • Best Indie Game is exception (see the terms below)
  • You are responsible for your playable build (no dead links, Steam keys and so on)
  • You can change your submission before the game submissions deadline
  • Note that we do not accept any changes in submissions after the deadline (without exception!)
  • The nominees must be present at the Awards ceremony

NOMINATIONS AND JUDGES

There are 10 Awards nominations in total.
You choose by yourself to what nomination you want to submit your game (minimum 1 nomination).
You can change your nomination before the game submission deadline.

  • GRAND PRIZE is the main award

4 nominations are focused on the main game characteristics:

  • Excellence in Game Design is evaluated by game designers
  • Excellence in Visual Art is evaluated by artists
  • Excellence in Audio is evaluated by sound designers
  • Excellence in Narrative is evaluated by narrative designers

3 nominations are focused on platforms:

  • Best Mobile Game — games for mobile devices
  • Best Desktop Game — desktop, and online games
  • Best VR Game — VR games
  • Best Indie Game — the main nomination for indie-games

— special $20,000 (will be raised) prize fund for this nomination

  • Game Lynch Award is not a part of DevGAMM Awards. The winner will be picked during the Game Lynch event

The final decision of the jury is not a subject to appeal!

BEST INDIE GAME NOMINATION REQUIREMENTS

1. A game shouldn’t be released on any platforms during the submission deadline.

  • Steam page is allowed
  • Early Access is not allowed
  • Public beta on private website is allowed

2. Having an investment is acceptable.
3. You must own 100% of your IP, even if you have a publisher.
4. Sequels are not allowed.
5. Only teams with 5 people or smaller can submit their game (including game designers, artists, programmers, both full-time and part-time).

Read more in this article

FAQ

How will all the criterias of game submissions check?

if a team would like to be nominated for Best Indie Game, all the important requirements will be added to DevGAMM Awards game submission form. We can actually google the first point (if your game is being released).

Why only unreleased games?

The participation at DevGAMM Awards will simply give them more valuable help then for released games.

Why there is a limitation ‘up to 5 team members’?

We use this rule in order to limit ‘weight category’. It is inappropriate to compare games that were developed by teams of 1-5 members with teams of 10-20 or 50-100 members because of their numerical advantage.

Moreover, most of the iconic games were developed by small teams with 2-3 members. We think that 5 is an optimal number.

We would like to support small studios. $20,000 for 10-20 people won’t make a great difference. But it can beсome a determinative factor for a team with 2-3 members. (E.g. people can finally decide to quit their job for half a year in order to work on their project. It can also be a nice opportunity to invite a new team member with a great work experience).

How are you going to check, if there are maximum 5 team members?

We will ask all team members to specify their names and positions. This information will be public. In case, if a team won’t include a name of some member who some claims, we will remove a game from nomination but in no case from DevGAMM Awards. So, the game will still have an opportunity to be nominated for other prizes.

How are you going to check that a person who had complaints was really a team member?

It is a bit complicated question. If it is an artist we would ask him to send us some art sources, if it is a programmer – code sources. Game designers is another story. Anyway, the most successful teams are always the most solid which work on trust. As a conference we’re not some arbitral court, so we’re going to act on the basis of DMCA platform. But we really hope that it’ll never come to that.

Why do you think that audio-designers are not a part of a team?

Well, it is more common that people order the sound. But if there is an audio-designer in your core-team, it’s not a problem to include his name too.

Why is it acceptable to have investments?

The answer is simple – we just can’t check this information. It’s really inappropriate to check someone’s finances. If a team has found a way how to receive some investments – that’s great.

It is not important for us in which way they did that – found investors, relatives gave some money, got a loan from banks, or collected money at Kickstarter. If that money was spent for team extension, and the number of team members will be increased, they just won’t be nominated.

Why is it acceptable to have a publisher?

We will accept only unreleased games (at the time of DevGAMM Awards submit session deadline). We don’t want to limit small teams just because they were lucky to find a publisher at an early stage.

The most important is that a team should have 100% of intellectual property rights of their game.

Why is it so important to own 100% of IP?

It is the most important requirement of ‘independence’ for us. It’s referred only to IP but not to profit-sharing.

But what if a game is developed by 5 people within one big company as a separate studio?

If it is an initiative of a small team within a big company – no. As a result, the IP will belong to that big company which is likely to have more than 5 employees.

But if they are a fulltime employees who gathered to create the game of their dreams during their off-hours, in the evening or during day-offs – then it is yes.

We would like to recommend such developers to read carefully their contract with the employer. Because everything that you develop while working for your company can all of a sudden become their property.

Why are sequels not allowed?

If the first game is so successful so that the developers decided to release the next part, that means that they have already got their part of the recognition. Our goal is to choose and support the team of beginners within this nomination.

If it would be found that some of the terms were adhered incorrectly, we have the right to remove a game from the nomination. We can reconsider the results and ban all the team members to take part in future. Everything should be built on trust.

Note that we will not remove a game from DevGAMM Awards, it can still take part at any other nominations.

If I don’t fit with your requirements, does that mean that i’m not indie?

If you don’t fit with our requirements that doesn’t mean that you’re not ‘indie’. We imposed such limitations only for Best Indie Game nomination of our conference to:

  • to avoid disputes
  • to give more visibility to smaller beginner teams

If you think that you’re indie than you’re indie. In case, if you don’t fit with our criterias of ‘indie’ that means that you can’t submit your game to Best Indie Game nomination. But you can take part at other nominations.

HOW TO BECOME A JUDGE

Each DevGAMM Awards we invite game industry professionals to participate in the evaluation of projects through our automated judging system. For instance, artists, game designers, narrative designers, programmers, producers, testers, publishers, journalists, CEOs of gaming companies and so on.

Requirements for judges:

  • Judge should have minimum 3 years of work experience in the gaming industry
  • Judge shouldn’t be involved in any of the projects that are submitted to DevGAMM Awards
  • Judge is obliged to evaluate minimum 20 games or more (optional)
  • Time for evaluation is 3 weeks (from April 18 until May 7)
  • We do not publish the names of judges to avoid pressure on them, but we don’t prohibit them to talk about it publicly

Judging is a voluntary action of the gaming industry representatives who really cares what kind of games should win recognition.

Moreover, it is a nice opportunity for publishers to review projects prior to the conference!

WANT TO SPONSOR A NOMINATION?

Awards sponsor benefits:
  • Extra visibility for the company
  • Logo on Awards page
  • Logo in the Show Guide
  • Logo in all online Awards promos (newsletter, social media, blog)
  • Extra mentions in nominees and winners announcements
  • Logo in the video of your nomination during Awards
  • Logo on Awards program handout

Contact us for more info

Grand Prize

Sponsor: Rocket Jump
Prize: iPhone X 256 GB

Excellence in Game Design

Sponsor: Rocket Jump
Prize: Xbox One X

Excellence in Audio

Sponsor: Amazon
Prize: Amazon Kindle Fire

Excellence in Visual Art

Sponsor: CrazyPanda
Prize: Wacom Cintiq Pro 13″

Excellence in Narrative

Sponsor: Amazon
Prize: Amazon Kindle Fire

Best Indie Game

Sponsor: tinyBuild + Kefir
Prize: $20,000

Best Mobile Game

Sponsor: Appodeal
Prize: iPhone X

Best Desktop Game

Sponsor: CarX Technologies
Prize: PS4 Pro + DualShock + FIFA 2018

Best VR Game

Sponsor: Fibrum
Prize: Fibrum Pro

Game Lynch Award

Sponsor: CreaGames
Prize: Xbox One X

DEVGAMM AWARDS IN MOSCOW 2017

BECOME A SPONSOR OF DEVGAMM AWARDS

  • Additional status of a “… Nomination sponsor”
  • Increase your brand awareness
  • Logo on Awards page
  • Logo in the Show Guide
  • Logo in all online Awards promos (newsletter, social media, blog)
  • Extra mentions in nominees and winners announcements
  • Logo in the video of your nomination during Awards
  • Logo on Awards program handout

If you would like to become a nomination sponsor, please contact us at contact@devgamm.com