Contests are one of the events which game designers can participate. They are a great way for developers to hone their skills in the game creation process. Contests have a determined period of time in which developers must create a game. Most of the time it’s from scratch and within a certain theme.
There are many game designing contests which you can enter with a team. From these team contests you can learn many things, with some of them being: maintaining good teamwork in a environment with a lot of pressure, prioritizing ideas while still making a great and original game, creating games and game mechanics within certain themes.
Contests are a way to get new ideas. With many of them having time constraints, people have to be creative as there isn’t much time to create great graphics, sound or complex programming. Usually simple yet awesome ideas for game mechanics come out of these contests.
Below is a list of contests which you can see if you’re interested in any:
- Ludum Dare is a website which hosts many challenges for anyone to try to complete. If you’re interested in trying to participate in any of their challenges, their Rules and Guide page has more information about their challenges.
- Microsoft’s Imagine Cup is a contest which it’s motto is: Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems. If you’re interested, you can find more about the games section of the contest and the competition rules.
- Global Game Jam is an event where participants have to come up with a game within 48 hours. The theme is given to the participants in the event. The makers of the game hold all IP rights. All participants and all games entered for GGJ must agree to a Creative Commons, share, alter, no sell license. You can find more information on what is a game jam, what is the Global Game Jam and which locations there are game jams happening.
- 1 Month Game is a blog where game developers can set themselves the goal to create a game in 4 weeks and post about it every day.
- The Independent Games Festival annually awards indie developers. With over $55,000 in prizes in many categories. You can find more information about IGF, how to submit your game, awards and rules.
- World of Level Design has many challenges for level designers. You can try taking a look at the list and doing one of the challenges even if it’s over already. Having that list is great because if you want to practice your level designing skill you can simply go on there, pick a theme and create a level. If you need any help, take a look at the Getting Started page.
Know a good contest for game designers to participate in? Please send us a message!