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1. A game shouldn’t be released on any platforms during the submission deadline.
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).
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:
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.
4 nominations are focused on the main game characteristics:
3 nominations are focused on platforms:
— This year tinyBuild ($30k), Arktos Entertainment ($10k) и Kefir ($10k) companies has established a special $50,000 prize fund for this nomination
— The winner will get $30,000
— All nominees will get $5,000 each
The final decision of the jury is not a subject to appeal!
Requirements for judges:
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!
Contact us for more info
If you would like to become a nomination sponsor, please contact us at contact@devgamm.com