The following are the rules for participating in Swedish Game Awards 2008. See also the FAQ for questions not answered here.
§ 1 General
§ 1.1 Swedish Game Awards (SGA) reserves the right to decide whether an entry may compete or not.
§ 1.2 Entries and participants may not be associated with, or sponsored by, a company in the games or entertainment industry. An entry that violates this rule will be disqualified.
Clarification: It is allowed to start a company (non-professionally) associated with the entry. The purpose of the rule is to keep the competition student-oriented and prohibit professional game developers from established companies from competing.
§1.3 The entry must not have been published or marketed actively prior to the competition.
Clarification: By publishing, we mean putting the game on the consumer market. Having entered other competitions, being mentioned by media, or having a project website is allowed.
§1.4 A playable demo – not necessarily a completed game – must be submitted by each team at the end of the competition. This submission is referred to as the final entry. Additionally, each team is required to submit at least three (3) in-game screenshots.
Tip from the jury: the graphics in itself are not that important, but it must be polished. For example, a nice graphical style is more important than using cutting-edge shaders.
§1.5 A competing team owns all the rights to its entry. SGA will not distribute the final game without the team’s consent. However, SGA reserves the right to use the trailer movie which is a part of the final entry, as well as screenshots, for publicity purposes.
§1.6 The competition is divided into three steps that must be followed by each competing team. The first step is to submit a concept document, the second step is to submit a game trailer and the third step is to submit a demo. In the final entry, the team is allowed to submit a revised concept document, although the first submitted version must have been written as if it was final.
Clarification: Empty concept documents, no trailer or no demo disqualifies an entry.
§1.7 Award nominees and winners are selected by the competition’s jury, and its decision cannot be appealed. The jury consists of representatives from SGA’s partners.
§2 Technology
§2.1 Entries must run on one of the following operating systems: Windows XP, Linux (latest stable build of Ubuntu) or OS X (as a Universal binary). Emulators are permitted.
Clarification: The entries may use special hardware such as gamepads or home made input devices, but they should be sent to SGA prior to jury weekend and will be returned shortly after.
§2.2 Entries are allowed to use existing technology (such as libraries, game engines, game makers, etc.) and existing media (such as images, 3D models, sound effects, etc.) However, teams must have the right to use the technology, media and trademarks, as well as the right to submit the final entry to SGA for judgement, i.e. respect copyrights and any applicable license agreements. The jury will take the amount of self-produced content into consideration when judging submissions.
Clarification: For the 2008 competition, modifications of existing games (“mods”) are allowed.
§3 Participants
§3.1 SGA aims to promote game development within the educational system of Sweden. Therefore at least half of the participants in each team must be students at a Swedish educational program and participate actively in the development of the entry.
§3.2 A participant may be a member of at most two participating teams.
§3.3 The entry may (and should) be tested by people outside of the participating team. However, the testers’ participation may not go further than providing comments for the improvement of the entry. If further involvement is necessary the third party should be added to the team.
§3.4 The participating team may add or remove participants during the course of the competition.
Comments: If a team plans an ambitious entry that does not completely follow the rules above they may contact SGA with an rules exception request. More specific demands that affect the final entry may be announced during the course of the competition.
