Important Notice

Dear Participants

As you are aware, Phase II judging is now progressing and we should be able to release more information around 28th September regarding the final entries across the categories who will progress to Phase III.

However, please ensure that you do not attempt to modify your game (for those who have submitted an online link, i.e. for Scratch entries) since its initial share, which will of been prior to the end of August's submission deadline. 

This is extremely important as it may result in modified entries being removed and disqualified from the competition, which is of course the last thing we would want but we need to keep this fair to all.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Best regards,

The Project Team at ACER Foundation

Phase I Judging is now complete!

First of all, the Project Team do want to thank each and every one of you who has entered this competition.  There have been some fantastic entries, illustrating a high level of technical engagement and storytelling. Without you guys, we would not have a competition, so thank you very much for being part of the journey!

Phase I judging is now complete and entries that have passed this stage can be found on the list here. 

If your team/game name is not on the list, then unfortunately your entry will not be progressing to Phase II but well done on your submission!

We really appreciate that there will be disappointments at this stage.  It is not possible to give individual feedback on Phase I but the following list shows some of the reasons why entries did not proceed to Phase II:

• GDD missing in that a blank and/or other document submitted
• GDD incomplete/insufficient information
• Game file link not working (more common on Scratch entries than other platforms)
• Game file requiring additional software to play
• Game not loading due to missing data file (and so the game couldn't be opened)
• Game not loading in Windows (some files had MAC file extensions for example)
• Game file uploaded with incorrect file extension so unable to open and play
• Game is multiplayer game and so the judge could not play the game on their own

To quantify the above, the technical specifications for the games were very clear as follows, and the games which have not been able to proceed to Phase II have generally fallen down on one or more of the following points:

• All entries must have a complete Games Design Document
• All submitted games must run in a Microsoft Windows operating system
• All submitted games must utilise a keyboard and mouse based control system
• All submitted games must function, first and foremost, as single player games
• All submitted games must function/run independently of a need to download/install specific game development software, or additional software
• Submitted games should refrain from the use of store-bought or purchased assets

Phase II judging will use the Judging Rubric to score each of the elements against an overall mark of 500 (200 for the GDD and 300 for the Game itself).

Phase II Judging will take place between the 14th - 22nd September 2017.

The top 5 entries for each of the six individual categories will proceed to Phase III (so there will be 30 games judged in the final round).

Stop Press!!! Deadline Extended until Monday 28th August, at 12 Noon (AEST)!!!

It has become apparent that quite a few of you are experiencing technical issues when submitting, for example, such as the game file size being too big (you need to compress this to a .zip file), etc.

So we have decided to give you another couple of days until Monday 28th August, at 12 Noon. 

We must however reiterate that any games submitted after this deadline will not be accepted.  This is because Phase I of the Judging starts on Tuesday morning.  If your game is not submitted by Monday's deadline, your entry will be null and void.

With thanks

The Project Team

contact@stemgames.org.au