Programming Project Submission Guide

All finished projects are required to be published on the itch.io platform and submitted to the Sumo Digital Rising 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, Sumo Digital Rising 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 Sumo Digital Rising 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.

To what extent are we allowed to use existing assets in our project?

For example, are we allowed to use Creative Commons-licensed images and sound created by other people in our game? What about prefabs or scripts from the Unity Asset store (free or paid)? Can we re-use assets from other projects we've made ourselves?

And if we do use existing assets, should we cite our sources for these somewhere in our project?

Thanks for clarifying.

Your specification mentions that we have a lot of freedom when it comes to the game's concept, but mentions nothing about what sort of possibly mature content is and is not acceptable. I'm not planning on bringing on the next Hatred, Grand Theft Auto or Postal to submission, but I am concerned that if I overstep this currently invisible boundary, that I might be disallowed.

Here are some specific points that I would like to be addressed regarding this issue, going by PEGI standards:

• Violence
  
  • Violence is a core component of many games, but how realistic are we allowed to be? Are we allowed to show blood when things get hurt?
• Bad Language
  • Obviously our games shouldn't swear like sailors, especially without context, but it is a part of writing and life. Can we use them if they're bleeped out or fantastical? ('Oh Gods!' seems to be a popular one in fantasy nowadays)
• Fear
  
  • This is perhaps the one that pertains most to me. Without giving too much away, can we create games with frightening, possibly life threatening situations? Should they be abstracted or softened?
• Sex
  
  • No comment. I'd be very suprised if we were allowed to do anything related to this.
• Drugs
  
  • This is one that seems to crop up in games without developers realising it. My guess would be that magic potions and floating health packs are OK, but showing real life addictive substances isn't?
• Discrimination
  
  • Haven't got much of a comment on this either. I'm just putting it down because it's on the website for the ratings board.

I ask mainly because other competitions I have entered have at least addressed this sort of thing. Previous entries have of course been rather tame, possibly due to the fact that industry professionals are going to have to look at this at some point, but I feel that you need to be more up front with this if everyone's going to be on the same page.

Please respond when you are able, and possibly update the specification to reflect this. If you were to just say 'remember make your game suitable for a family audience' then I'd be OK with that too.

Thank you.