Student Game Design Competition

The CHI PLAY Student Game Competition will provide a unique opportunity for students to showcase their interactive play systems and designs. Students will need to submit a video of their game as well as proof of student status (full-time or part-time, all levels up to Ph.D.). A jury panel will nominate the best submissions for an interactive presentation at the conference, where a panel of experts choose the winners. These nominated teams have to send at least one student member who will attend the conference. This team member is expected to present the game during the Student Game Competition Event and take part in the award ceremony. Supervisors are NOT accepted to present the game nor to accept the award. Registration and full attendance of at least one student from the team at the CHI PLAY 2019 conference is mandatory.

Criteria

The game has to be new. Games from previous contests that have already received considerable media attention may not be submitted the Game Design Competition

Teamwork is allowed. The maximum development time of the game should not be higher than 72 person-months. Students might be asked to present a time sheet of the development. Multidisciplinary and multi-national teams are particularly welcome. There is no limit to the number of teams that may compete from any given university.

The competition is open to a variety of student profiles. All students at various stages of their university careers, full-time or part-time, from undergraduate to postgraduate level (including master’s and doctoral students) can submit their work to the CHI PLAY Student Game Design Competition.

The Game must be functional. This implies that reviewers, jury members and conference attendees are able to play the game or at least a part of the game in order to have a meaningful play experience. However, a fully finished game is not required; a playable demo or demo level is sufficient.

Paper prototypes or non-digital games are not acceptable.

There is flexibility in terms of game specs. Students are allowed to rely on their preferred game engines (Unreal, XNA, Unity 3D,…), devkits and libraries. The games can run on any platform (PC, Mac, console, tablet, PDA, etc.). Students are responsible for bringing the necessary hardware to run their game to the conference.

Permission needs to be ensured. Before submitting a game, students must have obtained the permission of all persons or entities having any rights in the game. Please ensure that submissions do not contain proprietary or confidential material.

Submission

The maximum size of all four parts of the anonymous submission combined is 110 MB. If your game submission is large and requires more space, instead of submitting the game itself, submit a text document containing a URL that can be used to download the game, e.g., using a file sharing service such as Dropbox or OneDrive. Please keep download time in mind and realize that if a game cannot properly be downloaded, it will be excluded from the review process.

The Extended Abstract  should contain information about the game’s concept, innovations, target audience, technological and game play innovations. For games that are part of a research project, the submission should also include research questions methodology, implementation and results as well as explain what background research informed their design decisions. This Extended Abstract must also provide a link to the game play video.

The executable game is optional, yet strongly recommended. A document with technical requirements and installation description is mandatory when submitting an executable game. If you have built the game in Unity 3D, please provide the game as the web player version. If submitting an executable is not possible (e.g., because of dedicated hardware/software infrastructure or specialized game play settings), then this part can be omitted, however, obviously, the video play footage will have to demonstrate the game play.

A technical requirements and installation document (when submitting an executable game) should clarify any special requirements around the presentation of the game at the conference, and should clearly list what resources will be required at the conference, such as tables, chairs, network access, lighting constraints, etc. Additionally, this document can briefly describe any special hardware/peripherals/operating system requirements.

Contestants must proof their student status, at a high school or university during the time of creation of the student game. It is acceptable but not required for the game to have been created as part of a school or university course. Students must provide either (a) a signed letter from their academic supervisor confirming that they were student at the time of the creation of the game. Being student implies that at least 50% of their working week was spent following an academic course or study, and that they were not employed within game-related industries when working on the submission, or (b) proof of enrollment in an academic program related to the game project. Each team must provide one proof package – a single file containing scanned proof documents for each team member.

Review Process

Each submitted game project will be reviewed by academic and/or professional experts in game design and development. Nominees and award winners will be selected based on the following criteria: Originality, Quality, and the Positioning and articulation of the game’s contribution.

Upon Acceptance

The nominated teams have to send at least one student member who will attend the conference. This team member is expected to present the game during the Student Game Competition Event and take part in the award ceremony. Supervisors are NOT accepted to present the game nor to accept the award. Registration and full attendance of at least one student from the team at the CHI PLAY 2019 conference is mandatory.

The camera-ready version should acknowledge any assistance drawn from outside (advisors, faculty, domain experts, existing solutions, users, etc.). Affiliations need to be clear. Supervisor can be added as author but the first author must be a student.

Nominees should prepare for a brief (5-minute) pitch to present the game to jury and conference visitors. Additionally, we suggest keeping copies of the Extended Abstract paper at the booth to inform visitors.

At the Conference

Any submission must be, upon acceptance, attend the conference and be playable by conference attendees. Nominees should bring along a playable version of the game and foresee the necessary hardware. At the minimum, power will be provided. If necessary, specific infrastructure and equipment requests can be discussed with the Game Design Competition Chairs.

After the Conference

Student Game Design Competition papers will be available in the CHI PLAY 2019 Conference Extended Abstracts proceedings available in the ACM Digital Library.

Please direct any questions to Student Competition Chairs