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Official Indie Game Making Competition 2018 FAQ! Sticky

A topic by Nick_Komodo created Oct 29, 2018 Views: 2,522 Replies: 35
Viewing posts 1 to 15
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FAQ

1. Is there a theme this year?

No. You are not required to stick to any theme. Your game can be about anything you want.

2. What counts for the "Pre-existing assets that were not created specifically for the contest" clause of rule 1 of the official rules?

This clause is mainly focused on allowing people to use pre-existing assets such as RPG Maker resource packs, Unity Store assets, Unity Frameworks, RPG Maker Plugins, and similar items that are publicly available, for purchase or for free.

It does also include materials that you had made for a previous project, as long as you can prove that it was not made for the IGMC project. An example of  proof would be:

  • A previously released game containing the material.
  • Old posts (Pre-IGMC 2018 announce) on forums/blogs that clearly show that it was made for another project.

Other forms of proof are also possible. If you feel that your piece is borderline, please ask @Nick_Degica.

3. Are pre-existing ideas allowed to be used?

Of course. We can't really tell when  you had an idea, so there would be no way we could judge this. If you already made a demo using the idea though, it becomes more borderline. In that case:

  1. You can use no assets from the project that do not fall under the pre-existing assets exemption outlined in FAQ question 2.
  2. You can use no programming, or in engine work from your previous version.

In other words, all actual work on the project must be redone from scratch. Even with these caveats, in general, we suggest that you work on a game for which you have never done any engine work, as that will guarantee that your project will not get disqualified for violating this rule.

4. How does the Publishing Rights clause for the winners work?

1. A developer wins. We award the prize money.

2. We look at the game and determine whether we want to expand and publish it as a full game in conjunction with the developer
    2a. If we don't, we immediately release it to the developer, and the develepor can do whatever they want with it, including making a commercial version on their own.
    2b. If we do, proceed to step 3.

3. We negotiate with the developer to determine contract. If they don't want to work on a commercial game, we can negotiate buying out the project to continue on our own here as well.
    3a. We come to an agreement, we begin working together under that agreement (or working on it alone)
    3b. We don't come to an agreement, and the publishing rights remain with us for 3 years, at which point they revert to the developer.

In all cases, the actual IP will remain with the developer. 

I'm still confused about FAQ no.2.

What part are you confused about?

2. What counts for the "Pre-existing assets that were not created specifically for the contest" clause of rule 1 of the official rules?

This clause is mainly focused on allowing people to use pre-existing assets such as RPG Maker resource packs, Unity Store assets, Unity Frameworks, RPG Maker Plugins, and similar items that are publicly available, for purchase or for free.

It does also include materials that you had made for a previous project, as long as you can prove that it was not made for the IGMC project. An example of  proof would be:

  • A previously released game containing the material.
  • Old posts (Pre-IGMC 2018 announce) on forums/blogs that clearly show that it was made for another project.


So, my question:

 1) Can I use default tileset and characters that I own RPG Maker MV and previous for this competition?

2) I still can use my previous project for this competition?

FAQ 2 is only about pre-existing MATERIALS (sprites/models/music/plugins/frameworks/etc), not about pre-existing games. FAQ 3 deals with pre-existing projects.

The main point of that clause is to allow things like the RPG Maker RTPs and items from the Unity Asset Store, etc. So yes you can use the assets that come with RPG Maker.

You can not use a preexisting game.

Pre-existing materials like RTP and assets allowed.  Check.

No pre-existing project like made project before the beginning of the competition. Understood.

Got it.

What if we made an external tool for a specific project before the contest started? are we allowed to use that tool in our IGMC project?

What kind of tool?

External software like random generators, model generation tools, etc.

Those are fine.

Deleted 5 years ago

That clears things up :) I wish they'd have been more clear about point 4 last year though >.>

I was working on a demo for a game that I left abandoned for about a year. I thought about getting back to it, finish programming and art and submit it for the contest. Even though what was already done for it was not for the IGMC, according to this FAQ I'm not allowed to submit it?

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The game has to be made DURING the time period. You cannot just finish a game that already existed.

I apologize if this was already asked - but can we submit our game to another game contest if we didn't start working on it until November?  I was considering getting a late start on the Maximum Monster Month jam to submit a short demo, and then I found this jam and am interested in participating.  

I see no problem as long as it is entirely made within the contest timeline unless the conditions of the other contest would conflict with the conditions we have on the publishing rights of the winning games.

I'm a bit confused about answer 4. What constitutes "working  with the developer to create the game," exactly? It sounds like they just publish the game on Steam, itch.io, etc. and take a cut.

For many of us, who have to work a day job to keep the lights on, turning our game into our career is only feasible if we get paid during the development time.  So if the promise is for a portion of the game's sales, then we wouldn't be able to work on the game AND work our day job or day jobs. If one of the winners is stuck in a position like that, are they just stuck, since they no longer have the right to publish their game and fund their next project that way? It almost sounds like getting second place is a safer career move than winning.

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That is all in the contracts, which will be negotiated after the contest. The support we will provide is determined by what is needed, and the percentage of the cut is dependent on how successful we predict the game is going to be combined with what support financially we are having to provide.

Remember that at the very least, you get the advantage of our marketing, media contacts, knowledge of Steam and other online stores, etc. And the prize money (which at the moment is going to be around $8,000 for each prize). And if you decide that is all the support you want from us, then the percent we take is not going to be as high as if you needed support with art and music, etc.

Just some truths of indie game development here: most indie games don't even make $8,000. Especially not self published.

Alright, thank you for clarifying further! I saw only the 5,000 USD associated with each prize and started to sweat a little for whoever ended up winning it.

I looking the games that are already uploaded for the community and is all rpg, the indie game that you want is the Rpg gender or can be any other gender?
Greetings!

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Any genre.

Sorry, it says prototype 1 hour on the front page. Is it 1 hour of gameplay or dev time?

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Up to an hour of gameplay. You can have more, but you'll only be judged for an hour. My goodness if it was dev time a lot of us would be very much in trouble! O.o

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Well, it said prototype, that why i wasn't sure. Thanks a bunch,  good luck with your game!

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Haha, no worries. It is always a good idea to check than not :) Thanks for the well wishes too, I hope your game goes well also!

Are we able to update the text / screenshots / video on our page after the submission?

I ask because I realize now that my instructions weren't as clear as I thought, and wanted to potentially upload GIFs of each mechanic to make it easier to understand.

Yes, you can edit the gamepage. Just don't touch your game files (as if you delete them you cannot reupload them.)

Thanks for answering my question :) !

I have a problem I uploaded my game via the  upload game button but for some reason my game is not in the submission feed an d i'm not sure what is going on. Is my game submitted or not. I've seen some posts where others have also had a similar issue.  This is my game that i uploaded please allow my game to also be submitted because of this technical issue. 

https://steve26.itch.io/heavens-sake-infinity-green

Thank for the gamejam. Is allowed to pitch and sold HTML5 game version before of gamejam result. Degica allowed this? Because waiting 1 month and not a fact that my game wins ....

Selling the game, no. You can make it into a donation if you have the rights to sell the game.

So i must waiting 30 days ((( ok.

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I have a question about updating your game after the submission period. I know you said you can't change the download file, but you can update the game info page, what about adding another platform? For example if I wanted to add a platform for mac. I just noticed some people in the submission feed have added windows that only had another platform before so I just wanted to check if we could do this. 

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You can't upload a file. I believe you can alter what you say you support. So if you had a Mac version uploaded, you could add the flag saying you support it but if the file doesn't exist you are out of luck. Technically you might be able to put the file on another site and include a link to it but that seems a little weaselly. How can we be sure that it is not an updated version? What if someone does the same thing with an updated windows version? I wish I had uploaded a linux version but at this point I suggest waiting it out.

Awesome will wait it out! Thank you so much for answering my question :) 

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How does Youtuber's Choice work?

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Our Guest Youtube Judge NicoB will pick his favorite from the top 10