InstantAction Game Developer Contest

We've got an extremely exciting contest kicking off today, the winner of which will win receive a publishing contract to get their game on InstantAction.  In addition to this we'll have a bunch of other great prizes.  So read the rules and then get working on your game!

Win a publishing contract from GarageGames and be among the first to get your game on a next generation online platform!

Independent game developers, this is your chance to turn your dream game into reality by winning a publishing contract for the InstantAction.com game platform. The winning entry will join games made by other well-known industry heavyweights. Finalists will be announced at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, with the winner being announced shortly thereafter.

InstantAction is all about bringing fun, top-tier games to the already large and growing audience of online gamers. We're looking for submissions that are innovative and eye-catching, but more importantly, easy to pick up and enjoy immediately.  Another main focus of InstantAction is community. As such, all submissions are required to be multiplayer games or include an extensive multiplayer component.

More details and prize categories will be announced soon. Questions? Respond in the comments section below, or send questions to ContestQuestions@garagegames.com.

Send all submissions to GameDevContest08@GarageGames.com. Read below for contest details, including terms, conditions, and prizes.

Terms & Conditions:

1) Submission Deadline: All entries must be submitted by February 10, 2008 to the following email address: gamedevcontest08@garagegames.com.
2) All entries must include at minimum a playable demo to be considered.
3) All entries must be multiplayer, or include an extensive multiplayer component.
4) All entries must be playable on Windows XP or Vista.
5) Contestants are free to use the technology of their choice for the creation of their game.
6) Entries may include games in progress or previously completed games.
7) Entries must be submitted in .zip or similar file types.
8) Entries must include a short description of the game as well as instructions on how to play.

Prizes:

Grand Prize - An InstantAction.com publishing contract. 

-A license to Unity Pro with Asset Server ($1,999 USD value)

Second Prize - Unity Indie license ($199 USD value)

Third Prize - Unity Indie license ($199 USD value)

Other Prizes - To be announced soon! Prizes will include hardware and software from some of the tech industry's top brands. Stay tuned to InstantAction for updates on new prize categories in the coming days.

Bonus - Unity Technologies will be offering extended trials to any registered participant that wants to use Unity.

**Click here for full Official Rules **

So there you have it.  I'm excited to see what games come from this.  I know there'll be some really great entries.

James

Comments

[Robert Duke]

Can you give us any info on the nature of the InstantAction.com publishing contract grand prize? Is it exclusive, does it allow publishing the game elsewhere?

Would the winner have some flexibility to negotiate the contract or would it need to fit InstantAction's basic contract pretty closely?

The contest sounds exciting, I have an existing project I may enter. I'm not very interested in the Unity licenses since I have no OS X environment, but the contract and the potential recognition a winner would receive are of interest.

[Charcoal]

I love how you need to be a resident of the USA to enter!

[Dylan Romero]

@Robert: I'll quote one of our producers who is very familiar with the contract to give you a better idea of what it entails:
"For what it's worth, our contract was written by Jeff Tunnell personally to be the most developer-friendly contract in the industry. The biggest point in the contract is that the developer continues to own their own IP. Another noteworthy point is that the development fee the developer recieves to enhance and port their game to InstantAction is just that, a development fee, and NOT an advance against royalties, so the developer will still make royalty from day one first sale. The amount of the development fee, if any, depends on the specific game, how complete it is, etc., so it's impossible to give even a ballpark figure in advance, it is not money you win, it is the amount you need in real and actual costs to actually complete your game and port it over."

[Robert Duke]

Sounds like an excellent contract Dylan, thanks for the response.

[auan_99]

Hi there,

We are developing a set of game concept which is quite similar to instantaction.com.
We are definitely want to see how's our game do when compare to other contester. But the problem is we will not be able to make the playable demo on time (Feb, 10th). So what if we still interested to send you the game for consideration of publishing right on Garage Game.

[Michael Lubker]

Do coop games count as multiplayer?

[Dylan Romero]

@auan: Send your game when your ready -- we're always looking for great games to add to the InstantAction library.

@Michael: Co-op games are fine. We're generally are looking for games with more than 2 players, but if the game is awesome, we won't penalize it for only being 2 player.

[Berzer]

when can we play the games