This document applies to all student projects that want to participate in our our itch.io Game Jam or be listed publicly on our department website.

To participate in the game jam your team must both

Submit your game to the itch.io Gotland Game Conference 2020 Showcase (open between: May 1st – June 1st)…
.. and deliver assets and project information to the department. (eg. follow the instructions on this page)

We need your assets to present your projects on our websites, on our social media, and for advertising the jam. You will need the same assets for your portfolios, future show floor applications and web presence.

All assets should be original work. Submissions with plagiarized graphics from other copyrighted sources will be disqualified. Use free- and open source fonts and audio.

All licensed assets (for example from the Unity Asset Store) must be listed in your game credits and in the game’s readme.

Delivery:

copy (text) is provided through the Student Games 2020 Submissions Form,
all other media is uploaded to a project-folder on our FTP-server.
- Needless to say: do make use of all this stuff on your itch.io game page too.
The FTP-server information will be mailed out starting in May, to the contact person for each team after they have submitted their game.

Updates to this page:

2020-05-28: extended trailer deadline (to 12:00 1st of june)
2020-05-27: made poster optional, extended deadlines (to 12:00 1st of June)
2020-05-11: removed all references to the “game prospect”.
2020-03-29: Published

Copy (texts)

Delivery window: 2020-05-01 – 2020-06-01 12:00

Provide all copy through Student Games 2020 Submissions. Register your game and team info early! 1st of May is the start of the application window, and you can update your information at any time after that!

This information is used on our websites and on our social media. Remember to update the information if your project changes.

Graphics

Delivery window: 2020-05-15 – 2020-06-01 12:00. In roughly the order you’ll be able to produce them:

High-resolution logo for your group / team / company, if one exist (transparent background) (png)
Concept art, development photos of the team, in-progress work etc – at least 4 images. (jpg)
High-resolution logo / splash for your game (transparent background) (PNG or PSD with layers)
Game thumbnail, 500x500px (jpg).
The title screen / main menu (jpg)
Minimum 4 good-looking in-game screenshots (jpg)

Concept art, screenshots, development photos etc. are (mostly!) used to present your game on our website. Here are some examples for context:

Try to stick to 16×9 aspect and minimum 1920x1080px resolution for screens and photos. There is no limit to the number of files – the more (good) content, the better.

Keep your graphics web-friendly, ~128-512kb is reasonable.

Make sure your assets lead viewers back to your project! Always put your project name / logo on screenshots, your names on concept art etc.

The thumbnail aspect ratio is 1×1 and is often displayed fairly small on social media, so keep the design clean. You can not fit the entire game view on the thumbnail – pick some detail to show off.

Trailer (16×9, 60fps, H264, MP4)

Deadline: 2020-06-01 12:00

Trailer for Frog Climbers, for inspiration.

Your trailer must be less than 80 seconds. The trailers will be uploaded on our YouTube-channel, websites and used to produce our annual showreel:

Watch Trail-er Blazing: Creating the Trailers your Game Deserves! (~23 minutes) and How To Make an Indie Game Trailer | Game Maker’s Toolkit (~14 minutes) to learn how to effectively pimp your game. TLDR: Try to focus on one core concept, and tease that what you’re showing is only a glimpse of what’s to come. Try to create a story with continuous momentum, structure, and a buildup to a resolution at the end. Do not try to demonstrate the game (that’s what a play-through is for).

Render your trailer using Youtube’s preferred settings:

16:9 aspect ratio, 1080p, 1440p or 2160p
Capture and encode at 60fps
Container: MP4
H.264 video encoder (two pass)
- Progressive scan (no interlacing)
- High Profile, 2 consecutive B frames
- Closed GOP, GOP of half the frame rate
- CABAC
- Variable bitrate. No bitrate limit required, but for reference you should aim for 12, 24 or 54 Mbps for 1080p, 1440p and 2160p, respectively.
AAC-LC audio encoder
- Channels: Stereo or Stereo + 5.1
- Sample rate 96khz or 48khz
- Audio bitrate: 384 kbps (stereo), 512 kbps (5.1)

OBS Studio is great for screen-capping video, and it’s Free and Open Source.

Max 80 seconds long.
Provide a good title-screen (= the thumbnail on YouTube) (jpg)
Make sure you clear the audio licenses!
No logo- or text overlays in the trailer – these are uploaded separately!

Optional deliveries

A2 poster (594x420mm, 300dpi, CMYK, .PDF)

Deadline: 2020-06-01 Print-friendly poster is a nice-to-have, not a need-to-have. Prioritize other content if you must.

594x420mm, with 3mm bleed around the edges
300 DPI, CMYK, as print-ready PDF
Include a web-friendly JPG copy: 72 DPI, RGB, minimum 1080px

“Bleed” is content that goes beyond the edge of where the sheet will be trimmed. In other words, the bleed is the area to be trimmed off (the cut is never exact and you don’t want to end up with white edges, or your artwork cut off).

The layout should be in portrait orientation.

All posters should be original work. Submissions with graphics from other copyrighted sources will be disqualified.

The Game Executable

Deadline: Can be uploaded at any time – even after the event!

In addition to putting your game up on itch.io, you’re also encouraged to upload a copy to our FTP.

Make sure to include a README (.pdf, .txt or .html) with information about:
- supported platforms
- how to install the game
- how to play the game
- any known bugs / broken features
- your contact info / website / link to trailer etc.
- full credits
- full credits for all assets that you did not create yourself (eg. Unity Asset Store and such).
A couple of screenshots and an image of the default control mapping is a good idea to include!
A portable install (“unzip and run”) is more convenient than an installer.
- Just make sure the game unzips to a folder and doesn’t puke a hundred files over somebodies desktop.
Clean up, compress and minimize the distribution folder as much as possible. Ideally the folder contains nothing but the game executable and the documentation.

Upload instructions

All material is uploaded to the GGC FTP (info in mail that is sent out in May, after after your team has signed up). We recommend the FileZilla FTP client. Here is a guide on how to use it.

ALWAYS KEEP A COPY OF ANYTHING YOU UPLOAD! The FTP is NOT a backup!

You can not delete things from the FTP. Be mindful with what you upload, and always provide clear versioning in the file names (eg. dates or increasing numerals). If you need a file removed, contact Ulf.

Folder structure:

Step into the folder for your year (1st, 2nd or 3rd) and create a directory with your project name. NOT YOUR TEAM NAME! In your directory you create three folders (pics, exe and trailer) and one file (your poster). Eg:

#-year/
--- OurGameTitle/
------ OurGameTitle.jpg  [web-friendly poster]
------ pics/
--------- [concept art, screenshots, prints, logos etc]
------ exe/
--------- [zip of executable + documentation]
------ trailer/
--------- OurGameTitle.mp4
--------- OurGameTitle.jpg [trailer title screen / thumbnail]

For pictures, video trailer and executables – respectively. Put the game poster JPG next to these folders. The poster should be named like your game is.

Example of the folder structure you need to create on the FTP

Keep uploading content when you’ve made significant progress, even after the deadline. We have many uses beyond the prints and will always pick the best-looking stuff that’s available to us. Try to provide good, versioned, filenames: MyGame_screen01_190516.jpg for example.