This jam is now over. It ran from 2024-01-29 00:00:00 to 2024-03-28 23:59:59. View 24 entries

Outline

The Games Innovation Challenge, brought to you by NSE and sponsored by UNiDAYS, is a game creation challenge open to university and college students across the UK. You have eight weeks to create an innovative playable game.

For those that want to get competitive, submissions will be judged by a panel of industry experts with a prize pool of £5,000 for the best entries!

Prize Breakdown

First Place: £2,000
Innovator Award: £500
Gameplay Guru: £500
Design Muse Award: £500
Technical Genius Award: £500
Games with purpose: £500
Commercial Gem: £500

Judging

Eligible submissions will be judged by a panel of industry experts from the world of game development, publishing and esports.

Judges will assess submissions based on the criteria below so make sure to consider these carefully when planning your project:

Technical Quality: How well does it run and how challenging was it to create?
Look and Feel: How do the sound and graphics make you feel?
Entertainment: How fun is it to play?
Innovation: Is there a twist? What’s unique about it?
Social Impact: Does the game tackle a challenging subject?
Marketability: How could you bring your game to market in a creative way?

As is often the case, you might not quite finish your project. If this happens, submit what you can and try to show the judges your vision for the finished project. Also, your game doesn't have to hit each of the criteria, but you are able to win multiple awards.

Rules

Your team may include as many members as you like (we recommend five) but must submit registration forms and meet the eligibility requirements to be eligible for prizes.
You can develop your game using any platform you’re licensed to use provided you submit something playable at the end.
Your game concept should be new, but you may use prebuilt assets and code provided you have permission to do so.
You must submit before the end of the submission window and may not update your submission once the submission window is closed.
Everything you create and submit is yours but, if you win, you’ll let us use video/images of your game to promote the challenge in the future.
We want all games to be playable by everyone, so no NSFW content and games must be in line with our code of conduct.

Eligibility

The NSE Games Innovation Challenge is intended for UK university and college students. However, we recognise that you may want to include friends that are not studying. To be eligible to participate in the challenge contest, the majority of your declared team, as well as your nominated project lead, must be currently enrolled at a recognised UK higher education provider.

For the avoidance of doubt, you don’t need to be studying any specific course or be attending the same university as your teammates provided you meet the above criteria. If you don’t meet these requirements we’d still love to see your creations but unfortunately, you won’t be eligible for prizes.

If you have any questions about your eligibility you can reach out to enquiries@nse.gg

Checklist

Fill out the interest form. This is so we know whether you'll be submitting and also whether you're looking for teammates.
Join the NSE Discord so you can talk in the Games Innovation Challenge channel.
Gather your team and come up with a name. Decide on your project, which can have a separate name from your team name.
After working on your game, once you are ready, please submit your game on this page.
Fill out the team registration form. In this form, you can also upload any supporting work and marketing plans e.g. project plans, storyboards, mock-ups, development work etc.
Finished!