DevGAMM Awards

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

Submission Deadline: April 10

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NOMINATIONS AND PRIZES

There are 8 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. The final decision of the jury is not subject to appeal!

Grand Prize

the main award

Sponsor: Pixonic
Prize: Gaming Computer (i7-8700, RTX 2080) + Dell Monitor

Excellence in Game Design

evaluated by game designers

Sponsor: UNICUS
Prize: Chessboard and a set of chessmen.

Excellence in Audio

evaluated by sound designers

Sponsor: tinyBuild
Prize: Headphones Shure SRH1440

Excellence in Visual Art

evaluated by artists

Sponsor: Owl Studio
Prize: iPad 6th generation Wi-Fi 128 GB + Apple Pencil

Excellence in Narrative

evaluated by narrative designers

Sponsor: DevGAMM
Prize: Nintendo Switch Neon + Legend of Zelda:BotW

Best Indie Game

the main nomination for indie-games

Sponsor: Unreal Engine + tinyBuild + Kefir
Prize: $30,000

Best Mobile Game

games for mobile devices

Sponsor: DevGAMM
Prize: Nintendo Switch Grey + Dark Souls: Remastered

Best Desktop Game

desktop, and online games

Sponsor: Nodget Computers
Prize: Monitor ASUS ROG PG248Q

How to take part?

  • Buy ticket for DevGAMM (BUSINESS or STANDARD)
  • Submit your game no later than April 10 using your ticket number
  • Your game will be reviewed by our judges
  • Nominees will be announced a week before DevGAMM
  • Visit DevGAMM Awards ceremony on May 17
  • Gain recognition, win prizes!
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GAME SUBMISSIONS REQUIREMENTS

  • Submissions are free, but you must have a ticket to the conference (1 game = 1 ticket)
  • All the games (regardless of a studio size) are evaluated on a common basis
  • You can change your submission before the game submissions deadline
 All nominations
(except Best Indie Game)
Best Indie Game

Game release

(see the description below)

 Game was released no later than a year ago                                                           
(not earlier than 10.04.2018)                                                             

 
Team sizeAnyUp to 5 members
Having publisher or investorIs allowedIs allowed
You must own 100% of your IP
Game is a sequelIs allowedIs not allowed

Platforms

– Desktop (Windows\Mac)                                                                                 

– Mobile (iOS, Android)                                                                                      

Having playable build

– Link to website/page if it is an online game                                                                            
– Link to build (only Dropbox or Google Drive)                                                                           
– Steam codes if it is a paid game on Steam                                                                              
– AppStore/Google Play (TestFlight or redeem codes if it is a paid game)                           
– Games without build will not be accepted!                                                                              

Stages

Alpha version and higher, prototypes are not accepted                                                                

BEST INDIE GAME NOMINATION REQUIREMENTS

Apart from official game release, released games are games that use monetization.

Examples:

  • Game sale in Early Access on Steam
  • Collecting donations on Patreon
  • Sale of in-game items
  • Monetization through advertising
  • Gamejolt, itch.io and other resources if there’s monetization (if there’s no monetization than it’s allowed)
  • Soft Launch on mobile devices in one of the regions with any ways of monetization
  • Sale of game access on your website including closed or open beta-test

If a game is available on its website or services as itch.io without ways of monetization than we do not consider it as a release.

How will all the criterias of game submissions be checked?

There are questions in the submission form that check if a game fits Best Indie Game nomination requirements. If the organizers find out that the answers to these questions are not consistent with the reality, the game will be removed from the nomination.

Why is there a limitation of ‘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 a team won’t include a name of the member who has a legitimate evidence he is a part of the team, we will remove a game from Best Indie nomination but not 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 are 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 is spent on 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 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 criteria 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 (April 12 – May 3)
  • 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?

  • 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

ANY QUESTIONS?

Taras Zhukov

Awards Producer

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