The following rules and terms will be applicable on games that wish to compete for the awards.

Eligibility Criteria

Any video game which has been released, and made publicly available to consumers, between 1st Sep 2023 to 10th Sep 2024, is eligible for nomination under PC/Console Game of the Year, Mobile game of the Year, AR/VR Game of the Year, Indie Game of the Year and Student Game of the Year categories. Upgrades, expansions and mission packs are not eligible.

For the Upcoming Game of the Year category, only games that are scheduled to be released by Aug 2025 are recommended for submissions.

The game submitted should:  ( This is not applicable to International Game Award)

• Be owned by an Indian entity and developed in India.
• Be an original work of authorship.
• Not have any objectionable content including but not limited to content that is unnecessarily violent, racist, sexist, offensive, illegal or hateful.
• Not infringe any third party’s intellectual property or privacy.
• Not in any way violate Indian laws.

Rules and Terms for the Award

All game submissions will be reviewed for content and compliance with these Official Rules before being judged. Entries found to be in contravention of the Official Rules or otherwise deemed by the contest organizers, at their sole discretion, to be inappropriate will be disqualified. The organizers reserve the right to make the final determination as to what games are eligible to take part in this Contest.

Submissions

• A participant can submit a game for Maximum of Three Award categories only.
• Each participant can make a maximum of THREE submissions in a specific category.
• To be eligible to participate in the Indie Game of the Year category, ownership of the IPs belonging to self-funded Indian entity with less than 20 members is mandatory.
• To not be considered an Indie, please select “Other” option in Employee strength. Selecting employee strength of less than 20 automatically qualifies to be an Indie.
• To be eligible to participate in the Student Game of the Year category, proof of enrolment in an educational institution for the current or last academic year is mandatory.
• A playable build of the game must be submitted in any one of the following formats:
  • Accessible link for free download.
  • CD/DVD/USB shipped to the IGDC Awards team.
  • Distribution platforms like TestFlight
  • Installable key (like a Steam key, a Desura key, iTunes Promo Code).

Review and Judging Process

• Judging is a two-step process once all entries are received. First, there will be an internal evaluation for all submitted titles in which IGDC Awards Jury members will select the top five games for each award category.
• Once the final nominees are selected for each category, a Jury panel will cast their final votes to determine the winners in each category.
• IGDC shall not be liable to give any explanation to anyone for disqualification of entries.
• If there are no suitable entries, the jury may decline to appoint a winner for any category.
• The decision of the jury in all matters pertaining to the awards will be final and binding.
• Winners will be announced during the IGDC Awards ceremony at IGDC 2024 on the 14th of November 2024.

Recognition and Prizes

• Press releases will be issued mentioning the winners of the awards, and the prizes awarded to them.
• Opportunity for coverage and interviews in the news – in popular media forms – Online, TV, newspaper, radio etc. (Including regular sources of information related to game development).
• The winners and runners-up will receive citations from the awards for their accomplishment.
• All games that have won or were amongst the final shortlist will be given an option to display their game at the conference at a very nominal price or Free depending on availability of booth.
• Finalists of the Indie, PC/Console, Mobile, AR/VR awards will automatically qualify for the scrutiny round for Investor-Publisher Connect. 
• Voting for the Popular Choice award will be done by the audience on the first 2 days of the conference through physical or virtual votings.
• Developers who reach the finalist stage for the awards will receive two complimentary passes to the IGDC 2024.

Good Faith

• The jury’s decision is final as far as the awards are concerned, while the organisers decision is final as far as the organisation of the awards are concerned.
• The participants understand and acknowledge that the organisers are working with the best intentions to organise the awards. However, due to shortage of insights or limitations of resources, unforeseen mistakes may occur. As the IGDC Awards team, we’ll be in constant touch and request your timely feedback in such scenarios.

Who is an Indie?
Though it’s hard to define who an indie is, we use the following criteria. The developer should have less than 20 people in the company and the development of the game should have been self-funded.

What is a Student Game?
As the IGF says: The spirit of the Contest is to showcase what students can do, unassisted by professionals. As a result, only games that have been developed entirely by full or part-time college or high school students are eligible for entry. If a game has been developed with significant portions of the assets contributed by a professional, it is not eligible for entry. If entrants to the Contest are in doubt about the amount of externally created or contributed content in their game, please contact the organizers for clarification.

Organisations being run by students, submitting games as students, will not be accepted as Student Games. They should choose between Indie Game of the Year and Game of the Year nomination categories.

What does ‘minor portion’ mean in terms of development?
While we encourage and laud the use of local developers for the development of games, we understand that there will be some activity that may be done outside of India. For the purposes of this award, we would assume that less than 30% of the game could have been done outside of India. We trust that as a developer, you would know how to measure and appropriately decide whether or not your game is eligible.

What is an Upcoming Game?
An upcoming game is an as-of-yet unreleased game, but one which is going to be available publicly soon. It is very important that this game not have a prior commercial release. Public Alpha and Beta releases are accepted into Upcoming Games.

Should I submit my unreleased game for the Upcoming Games award?
The objective of the upcoming games awards is to help create visibility and exposure for a game about to be released to help it build better prospects (eg: get press coverage, find a publisher, etc) and increase its chances of being successful. For this to work, it is extremely important that your game be not released in any form for any platform, and that you are capable of following up on the visibility created by the award immediately by releasing the game asap (as time passes, people forget about games). Which is why we recommend that if you are confident of releasing your game by the end of April next year, definitely submit for the upcoming games award.

If your game has been previously submitted for the Upcoming Games award, the final decision for allowing entry rests with the organizers.

I have a previously released game that I am reworking on and it has now undergone major changes. Can I submit it as an Upcoming Game?
The simplest answer is: You should not.

However, it is not that simple all the time. If the developer very strongly believes that the game has undergone major redevelopment (and not just a refurbishing / port / content addition), they will not be stopped from submitting their game as an Upcoming game. In such cases, the jury requests a small video note from the developer, showing both the versions of the game (old and new), highlighting the differences and making a case for why the game should be considered as an upcoming game. If the jury is convinced, the game will continue in the Upcoming category. Otherwise, the jury will make recommendations for a suitable category for the game and the developer may choose to switch categories or withdraw the submission.

What if I had submitted my game for the Upcoming Games Awards last year and the game is released this year, can I nominate my game again in the Indies, Games of the Year category?
Yes, you can submit your game under any of the two categories if it got released in the time frame of the awards.

What are the devices that will be stocked for the Upcoming Game of the Year awards?
None. Developers are expected to arrange their own devices to showcase their games to the jury.