Introduction

Games offer us a way of sharing our personal lived experiences, and the opportunity to bring players along on an journey.

The video games mental health charity Safe In Our World has launched the first Mental Health Game Dev Champions event, aimed at empowering gamers and developers to create thought-provoking experiences, around the theme of mental health.

Game Dev Champions is an event open to a global audience, encouraging entries from a variety of ages, skills, and diverse backgrounds.

The event will be judged by an esteemed panel, and winners will receive a selection of prizes provided by our sponsors, that will help our participants in further developing a deeper interest or a career in games development.

Who is Mental Health Game Dev Champions 2024 for?

All ages (over the age of 18), skill levels, and backgrounds are welcome to submit entries. It doesn’t matter where you are in the world, if you have a story to tell, this is a place to share it. You can submit games as a group (up to 6 people in a team), or submit your own solo project.

When and what is happening?

This Jam opened on June 1st 2024 for submissions, and the final submission date is 31st October 2024. Once the deadline passes, we will move into the judging stage, which we anticipate will take one month. Winners will be announced in December, and more information will be provided to candidates closer to that time.

Theme for Game Dev Champions 2024

The main theme of the game should be focused around mental health. During the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health conversations grew significantly within communities and amongst peers. It almost acted as a catalyst for further mental health discussion. It was throughout that time that many people felt more able to share their stories and experiences. 

We want to use that catalyst to create personal, meaningful stories that surround elements of mental health. That doesn't mean your game must explicitly be around COVID-19, but instead incorporates themes in which were felt during that time in relation to our mental health.

Please see below for our selection of themes and prompts to inspire your creativity.

The Categories

 The Judges and Hosts

Winners will be selected in December by a panel of judges, including esteemed industry folk, game developers, indie publishers, and clinicians. This list is non-comprehensive!

During December the Safe In Our World Mental Health Game Dev Championship 2024 Winners will be announced via a Live Stream hosted by the renowned Julia Hardy and Doug Cockle

  The Prizes

  The Rules

• All games must be produced within the time frame of the challenge (development starts June 1st - and must be finished by October 31st), games made before 1st June are not permitted.
• A 'Small Team' must be a team of people who do NOT normally work together on projects, and must be a maximum of 6 people.
• Game Dev Champions is for people just starting their career in the games industry, to qualify you must not work within the industry or have only done so for 2 years or less. This does not apply if your current role is different to the one you will take on for the jam.
• If any member of your team is over 24, you are no longer eligible for the 18-24 category and must instead submit for 25+.
• The Games may be created using any games engine you wish as long as it is accessible to the judges.
• Premium assets are not allowed. If something exists in the final game that was paid for, meaning it was not created by the developers or acquired for free, it will disqualify the submission. Assets made by the team, or existing free assets (3d props etc.) are acceptable. See the FAQ for more information.
• Games using AI generated art or music are not permitted. Algorithms that don't use training data are permissible. 
• All games must include the theme in some way.
• All games must be complete and in a full working order.
• You may enter multiple games or join multiple teams if you wish, as long as they are all created during the given time.
• You must be prepared to provide your project file if requested. Please note, these will be used for judging only, and will not be made public. This rule is in place to verify authenticity.
• Games submitted to the jam should not be monetised until it has concluded and the winners announced.
• All participants must abide by our Code of Conduct.
• All games must be submitted to Itch.io by 11:59pm GMT October 31st 2024. 

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