Programming Project Submission Guide

All finished projects are required to be published on the itch.io platform and submitted to the Search For A Star 2018 game jam by 28th January 2018 at 11:59 PM GMT

Creating & publishing your project page

We advise that you set up a draft of your project page ahead of the deadline.
To create your game project page, go to your itch.io Dashboard and select the ‘Upload New Project’ option.

Complete the submission form, in line with itch.io’s Quality Guidelines

• Set Title to the name of your game
  • This should be the actual name you've chosen for your game, rather than a general project title or description of the project.
  • A good game title does not need to include any reference to Search For A Star or your own name.
• Set Classification to ‘game’.
• Set Kind of project to ‘Downloadable’.
• For Release State, choose an option that best describes your project, even if ‘prototype’ or ‘in development’.
• Set pricing to ‘Disable all payments’ - You can change this once all projects have been marked by the judges if you wish.

• Upload your compiled release build as a single zip file.
  • It should be possible for a user to download, unzip and then immediately run your game.
• Upload any supporting documentation as a separate PDF file alongside your game file. This should be used for :
  • Your intro explaining what you want to create for the project
  • Discussion of your ideas and any concept research
  • An outline of your design plan
  • A list of any external tools or 3rd party assets used in your project
  • Any dev diary or production notes (especially if you've written about problems encountered / solved )
  • A short reflective summary, saying how you think you did & what you might change
• Complete the Description text field with information about your game. Include information on the following :
  • An overview of what your game is
  • Your game controls
  • Any accessibility features / limitations.
  • Any recommendations for playing (e.g. controllers, local multiplayer)
• For Genre, Tags, Custom Noun, Community, complete to your own preferences.
• Include a cover image & screenshots. Include a gameplay video or trailer if possible. Gameplay gifs are great.

• When your project is complete, set ‘Visibility & Access Settings’ to ‘Public’.
  • To optionally prevent your project showing up in public listings, tick the box for ‘Unlisted in search & browse’.

When you're ready to submit your game

Go to the Search For A Star 2018 page and press the ‘Submit your jam’ button

Select your finished game and press ‘Submit’.

• Fill in your name
• Link to your Bitbucket source code & grant user access to 'GradsInGames'
  • You may be contacted in order to allow additional users access, depending on assessment requirements.

You may create, update & make changes to your project page at any point, but you will not be able to upload any changes during the assessment period (29th January 2018 - 28th February 2018).

If you have any issues with the submission process or want to clarify anything, let me know either here, at dan@gradsingames.com or ask on the Grads In Games Discord : https://discord.gg/7ppfTnT

Please note that there is no ‘fail’ or ‘disqualification’ criteria. Do what you can & submit what you are able to. Even unfinished pieces and works in progress can be valuable.