If you’re indie and looking to make a name for yourself, game development competitions are the way to go. Not only do you stand in line to win prizes (in most of them), you also gain recognition (which is something every indie developer needs). So without further ado, here’s IndependentGaming’s Big List Of Competitions (in no particular order). Be sure to bookmark!
Disclaimer: I’ll be giving short explanations about each of these, but shorter explanations do not mean that the competition is of lesser worth. Check them all out. There are also tons of local game jams that span only a specific state or city: they’re not in this list.
IGF – The annual Independent Games Festival, run by the folks behind the legendary Game Developer Conference. Massive, multi-national, and without a doubt the biggest in terms of attention. A number of popular indie games (like Fez) have exploded into popularity from the IGF. Be warned: the competition is tough and top-notch, as are the prizes. 2013 submissions now open.
F*** This Jam – Runs from Nov. 9th to Nov. 17th. Developers are forced to make a game in a genre they hate OR use a convention they hate. Not really a competition but still cool.
Microsoft Dream.Build.Play – A total prize pool of USD $112,000. What do you have to do? Build a game for Xbox / Windows mobile. Among the prizes are publishing contracts, Windows mobile phones, and more.
Indie Game Challenge – There’s a USD $100 entry fee, and massive prizes. Be warned: they require you to do a video pitch / presentation of your game as well, and the submission process is quite lengthy compared to the others.
NUS Game Development Competition – A competition for mobile games – iOS, Android and Windows Phone 7. Among other things, they’ve got one of the most loveable sites I’ve come across. “Imagine a world where gravity didn’t exist,” says their site (their 2012 theme if Gravity). “Tetris blocks would not fall. Angry Birds would not land. Skyrim guards would not take an arrow to the knee (well, that actually depends).”
IndiePub – The Independent Propeller Awards. A very respected competition, with a grand prize, Best Art, Best Audio, Best Design, Technical Excellence and Mobile categories.
GameCast – A mobile game development contest. It’s run by MoMinis, which makes a rather interesting mobile game development tool – MoMinis Studio (currently beta) is much like GameMaker, but this outputs for Android, Symbian and other mobile platforms.
Apps for Healthy Kids – A USDA challenge for game developers to make games which encourage players to be more healthy and eat better. So no making games about fast-food services, I suppose.
IndieCade – the IndieCade Festival is a completely independent, stand-alone competition. “IndieCade, the video game industry’s Sundance,” says the Los Angeles Times. Like the IGF, it’s not just a competition but a mini-GDC in its own right: panels, sessions, top games showcased – it’s a festival.
The Ludum Dare – How can anyone forget this? One of the most watched Game Jams ever. Make a game in 48 hours. That’s right – two days of insane sleep-deprived coding and artistry. It’s amazing what people come up with under stress.
The Java 4K Game Programming Contest – This one hails all the way from 2002, and is a remarkable technical challenge: make a game in just 4 kilobytes (4096 bytes) of Java code. Completely community-run and prizeless (and also price-less, because being able to build a good game in 4Kb is no small feat), it was initially a small idea that snowballed. If you have to know, renowned Minecraft developer Marcus Persson aka Notch won in 2009.
Microsoft Imagine Cup – Another giant, worldwide competition courtesy of Microsoft. While not specific to games, games are definitely part of the roster (Especially now that Windows 8 is hitting the smartphone world). It goes without saying that Microsoft competitions are mega-massive and usually include lucrative prizes – the Imagine Cup dishes out grants of cash and software.
HTML5Contest – A new one, seeking to promote HTML5 mobile games.
Codecup – A rather programmatical competition that requires you to write a program that can play a selected game. It’s like writing an AI engine for chess. In this case, the games vary each year, from Tic-Tac-Toe to Symple. Those interested in rule-based AI might was to try this one.
The Global Game Jam – That’s right, it’s global. “GGJ brings together thousands of game development enthusiasts participating through many local jams around the world on a single weekend.” Says their site. It’s true: jammers at over 120 synchronized locally-hosted Jams compete on an international scale. Some of these “local” Jams are national in participation.
TIGJam – Held by the TIGSource community.
The Experimental Gameplay Project – The name says it all. This community of indie developers runs game competitions EVERY MONTH. Watch out for cool themes that really make you come up with new ideas for gameplay.
Glorious Trainwrecks – “Glorious Trainwrecks is about bringing back the spirit of postcardware, circa 1993. It’s about throwing a bunch of random crap into your game and keeping whatever sticks. It is not about unfinished, unplayable games. If any part of a glorious trainwreck is terrible, it is terrible in a way that is AWESOME.” Does that make you gulp? Gulp and join in. They’re one of IGN’s top 30 Games People of 2011 and they’ve been around for 5 years.
Honorable mentions: the Indie Game Jam. This one lasted from 2002 to 2005 and saw many of the indie game world’s star developers participating. It’s considered to be the inspiration for other jams, notable the Global Game Jam. The PGD (Pascal Game Development) and Sundance competitions have officially been retired.
Thanks to David da Silva (@airrider3), indie game developer and CEO of Bluecode, for coming up with the idea of compiling a list. If there’s anything we’ve missed, tell us – we’ll keep this updated. Here’s to indies!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Yudhanjaya Wijeratne (@yudhanjaya) is the founder of IndependentGaming.net. After some lengthy and unpleasant exams, he’s returned to the world of indies. In real life he’s a journalist/writer for the Sri Lankan tech-mag Readme.lk. His personal blog is at 4250.
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I love you for making this article.
Thanks. 🙂