Home Build Your Own Game(BYOG) Rules and Guide

Build Your Own Game(BYOG) Rules and Guide

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THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS! - Please join the discussions in the forum to talk more about the BYOG and its rules. - http://ingd.in/discussions

Build Your Own Game - Jam is a development sprint in which developers get together, team up and make games. The first BYOG happened in July 2010. It started as an offline meetup/jam for a rag tag group of game development enthusiasts and more followed soon after. We finally decided to take it online rather than keeping it just offline.

 

Theme and time restrictions

The theme for the jam would be announced at 0000Hrs the night the jam begins on our IRC channel - irc://irc.enterthegame.com/ingdin and simultaneously on the InGDIn blog as well - ingd.in/blog . The jam would continue for the next 48 hours, after which you are given two hours to submit your game. The games would be made available for download on the InGDIn website the week after. The games would be voted on by a jury of peers and winners selected.

Each Jam will have a curator, who will decide and announce the theme when the time comes. This person can be nominated via voting in the InGDIn community.

If you have any theme suggestions, you can send in an email to monster@indiegamedev.in.

 

Participation

Go to ingd.in and create a new user account. Go to the current BYOG page and add yourself to the list of developers participating. After you are done making the game, log back in and go to the submission form to submit your game. You can also use the InGDIn Blogs to blog about your game’s development and progress while you are at it, post pictures, screenshots and keep everyone informed.

 

Rules

  • All the game code and content must be created during the 48 hour jam.
  • Games can be made using any libraries, middleware, content creation, and development tools.
  • Games can be cross-platform; If the platform is exotic and has limited accessibility, you are only hurting your chances.
  • There should not be any 3rd party content that you cannot legally use and redistribute (images, sounds, music, code).

 

Judging criteria

The games are judged by a jury of peers, for the following,

  • Gameplay
  • Innovation
  • Story-telling
  • Music
  • Use of theme
  • Overall

 

Submitting a game

The game’s binaries and assets should be in a directory, compressed and packed into an archive(7z, tar.gz, rar, zip) before submitting it. There should be a README file in the archive with the following details,

  • Game Description
  • Controls
  • Credits

You will be submitting your game to the website, but the actual game archive wont be hosted on the InGDIn servers. You will have to do it elsewhere(like http://www.dropbox.com). If you have no other alternatives send us a mail and we would try to arrange something else - monster@indiegamedev.in

Add your game here - http://ingd.in/node/add/project

 

Ownership

Your game belongs to you. InGDIn does however request you to the right to use your game for publicity of the jam. If you have any problems regarding this, please leave a note in the README submitted with the game; and also a separate email mentioning the same to monster@indiegamedev.in

 

Prizes

Will be added as and when they are sponsored.

eg: Anyone who finishes a game would get a copy of X game OR Anyone who gets the highest votes would get X. If you are an indie studio, you can sponsor the jam by giving away free copies of some of your games to the winners. If you would like to sponsor a prize or anything else for the event, you can send an email about it to monster@indiegamedev.in.

 

Technical problems

  • Unable to submit game - contact admin - monster@indiegamedev.in
  • Issues with team - pls2coordinate
  • Venue not suitable - Jam online!
  • Someone stole your project - aw, snap!
  • Basement cat ate your code - nyan!

 

Tips

  • Try to think of a game you can make in 4 hours and maybe you will finish in 48
  • Team up early!
  • Keep your tech ready
  • Expect things to go horribly wrong(zombie apocalypse..etc)
  • Remember, the more exotic your platform, the less chances of people playing them! (web > windows > mac/linux > psp go)

 

Hosting a BYOG

For those who want to get together and Jam offline with others, they can. When arranging a venue, keep some of these things in mind.

  • The venue must have an Internet connection(WiFi/wired)
  • Comfortable seating and tables
  • An eatery nearby or (stocked )fridge and lots of drinking water.
  • A place to lay down some sleeping bags or a place to crash and take power naps.
  • Extension boards and chords(Ask people to bring their own if need be)
  • A loo and if possible, a place to take a quick shower
  • A security guard in the premises
  • Venue rules and regulations to be set and agreed upon by host/attendees

Once a venue is arranged, you can send us the details(below) of the venue and we will update the venue on the website. We can also send you some posters and other paraphernalia that you might be able to use at the venue and before the event.

  • Venue
  • Address
  • Host
  • Host details
  • Host contact
  • Venue location on map
  • How to reach venue
  • Anything else you want to add