Up to 8 pages in ACM Journals Primary Template, single-column manuscript style (required)
A 3-minute video that is representative of the gameplay (required for initial submission)
IMPORTANT DATES
(all times are 23:59 Anywhere on Earth or AoE)
| June 5, 2024 | Student Game Design Competition papers submission deadline |
| July 12, 2024 | Notification |
| August 14, 2024 | Camera Ready Deadline |
The CHI PLAY Student Game Design Competition will provide a unique opportunity for students to showcase their interactive play systems and designs. We are seeking games that push the boundaries of game design, showcasing novel and transformative approaches to gameplay. We are interested in games that impact political, societal, artistic, educational, and other dimensions. Students will need to submit a video, including closed captions, of their game along with proof of their student status (full-time or part-time, all levels up to PhD). Submitting executable copies of student games is optional, though strongly encouraged.
An expert jury panel will nominate the best submissions for presentation and select final winners during the conference. Nominated teams have to send at least one student member who will attend the conference and present the submission during the Student Game Design Competition. Presenters are expected to be present at the award ceremony. Supervisors and advisors are NOT allowed to present the game nor to accept the award (supervisors can be an author on the paper, but not the first author). Registration and full attendance of at least one student from the team at the CHI PLAY 2024 conference are mandatory.
SUBMISSION FORMAT
- Up to 8 pages in ACM Journals Primary Template, single-column manuscript style (excluding references)
- Submissions are NOT anonymous; detailed instructions on formatting and submission can be found at Companion Proceedings Submission Guidelines.
- The content of the submission should follow the Additional Submission Guidelines for this track; the games must also fulfil the Eligibility Criteria (both can be found below).
- A max. 3-minute gameplay video; detailed instructions on technical requirements can be found in the Video Guidelines; in content the video should follow the Structural Video Guidelines (below)
- Proof of student status
- Optional but recommended: Executable game with 1-2 page technical requirements and installation description (maximum submission size 110MB, see guidelines below)
ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
The game has to be new. Games that have been shown at previous contests may not be submitted to the Student 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 timesheet of the development. Multidisciplinary and multinational teams are particularly welcome. There is no limit to the number of teams that may compete at 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. Recent graduates who can provide proof of student status within the past year are eligible. Supervisors can be authors on the paper but cannot be the first author. Supervisors and advisors are not allowed to present the game nor accept the award.
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. Due to the hybrid format of the conference, games that need additional equipment (e.g, virtual reality headsets, self-made artifacts and controllers) may not be available to be played by reviewers, jury members, and all conference attendees. Still, those kinds of games should be in a state that can be played at the conference to be considered for the final evaluation.
Paper prototypes or games that do not offer a clear and meaningful contribution to player-computer interaction are not accepted.
There is flexibility in terms of game specs. Typically, the game will contain a meaningful digital component to be eligible. However, non-digital games will be considered when the work offers a clear contribution to player-computer interaction. Beyond that, students are allowed to rely on their preferred game engines (Unreal, XNA, Unity 3D, etc.…), dev kits, and interaction technologies. The games can run on any platform (PC, Mac, console, tablet, head-mounted display, custom platforms, etc.). Games that make use of custom hardware or cannot otherwise be shared easily online are welcome. If you have any concerns about submission constraints please reach out to the SGDC chairs (sgdc@chiplay.acm.org).
Games that do not fit these eligibility criteria should consider a submission to Interactivity instead.
ADDITIONAL SUBMISSION GUIDELINES FOR THE SGDC TRACK
The maximum size of all parts of the 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. Avoid using file-sharing services with expiring links as it may prevent judges from accessing your game. If submitting an optional executable file, 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 submission document should contain information about the game’s concept, interactive innovations, target audience, and technological or gameplay 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. In their submissions, we explicitly want competitors to elaborate on at least one of the following points:
1 – How does it effectively integrate a variety of game design elements?
2 – How does it innovate and bring new horizons to game mechanics, technologies, and/or interactions?
3 – How does it effectively engage with social and/or cultural issues?
The gameplay video should be 3 minutes long, with a title slide including the title, name, and affiliation of authors, and unambiguously illustrate gameplay and demonstrate the player experience. The gameplay video is particularly important for submissions that make use of custom hardware or peripherals that may not be available to judges. Uploaded videos may be in a common video format (avi, mpeg, mp4, mov, wmv), or a txt file linking to a youtube video. Please see the general Video Guidelines for additional instructions about the video submissions. We recommend authors take these recommendations into account during their submission because they will be REQUIRED for the camera-ready version. If their submission is accepted, the preparation window for camera-ready submission is only three weeks, and finalists will be provided with instructions for presenting their game at the conference, which includes a “lightning talk” as well as a demo for conference attendees.
The executable game is optional, yet strongly recommended. A document with technical requirements and an installation description is mandatory when submitting an executable game. If you have built the game in a game engine that allows web player export, please provide the game as the web player version if possible. If submitting an executable is not possible (e.g., because of dedicated hardware/software infrastructure or specialized gameplay settings), then this part can be omitted. In such cases, the video play footage will be especially important to demonstrate the gameplay.
Technical requirements and installation documents (when submitting an executable game) should clarify any special requirements around playing the game for judging and any considerations that may be needed for the presentation of the game during the conference. Additionally, this document can briefly describe any special hardware/peripherals/operating system requirements. The authors should be aware that they are responsible for bringing and arranging access to necessary technical requirements for presenting the game at the conference. Competitors are responsible for all their hardware and peripherals.
Contestants must prove their student status at a high school or university during the time of the creation of the student game. Being a 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. 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 students at the time of the creation of the game, 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.
STRUCTURAL VIDEO GUIDELINES
The following guidelines have been prepared to ensure that the video reflects the motivation and goals of the project as well as the gameplay experience.
1. 3 seconds of showing the title, authors, and affiliations
2. Max. 1 minute explanation of the game and the aims of the research by the authors
3. 2 minutes of live gameplay. Gameplay should be reflected as follows:
- Games should be played by players who are not very familiar with the game.
- Both the game and the reactions of the players should be shown in the video (e.g, by putting the player and the screen view of the game side-by-side).
- You can include the gameplay sessions of more than one player for giving the account of different points of view
- If a gameplay session does not fit to 2 minutes, you are free to edit to highlight the important parts of your game that would give a better impression of how it feels to play the game
- You can prompt your players to think aloud while playing so we can understand their reactions better
- Some examples of games and videos from previous years can be found here (note, however, that there are slight changes from year to year in requirements):
In addition to these track specific instructions your submission must also follow the general Video Guidelines.
REVIEW PROCESS
Student Game Design Competition submissions will be juried. All identifying information about authors must NOT be anonymized before submission. All selected projects will be finalists at the conference and the winners of the competition will be decided by a jury consisting of academic and/or professional experts in game design and development.
UPON ACCEPTANCE
The nominated teams must have at least one student member who will register to attend the conference. This team member is expected to present the game during a Student Game Competition session and take part in the award ceremony. Supervisors are NOT allowed 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 2024 conference is mandatory.
The camera-ready version of the submission should acknowledge any assistance drawn from outside (advisors, faculty, domain experts, existing solutions, users, etc.). Affiliations should be clear. Supervisor(s) may appear as an author but the first author must be a student.
DURING THE CONFERENCE
Upon acceptance, all submissions must be presented during the conference, which will include both a demo/exhibition and a short “lightning talk.” Due to the hybrid format of the conference, we are working on updates regarding the submission requirements and exact conference presentation format (this may vary based on the types of games submitted).
In addition to the presentation, all accepted submissions will be showcased on a common webpage for conference attendees. This showcase may include the papers, gameplay videos, and links to access and play the games. If a game cannot be made available to remote attendees easily (e.g., it requires custom hardware or specific infrastructure) accommodations can be made for showcasing the game in other ways on a case by case basis. If you have concerns about this please contact the Student Game Design Competition chairs (sgdc@chiplay.acm.org).
AWARDS
CHI PLAY SGDC will present four awards this year:
1 – Most Polished Gameplay award will be given to the finalist with the best integration of gameplay elements, including audiovisual (e.g. graphics, sound) and technical (e.g. no bugs) quality.
2 – Best Innovation award will be given to the finalist who pushes the boundaries of game design through the experimental and novel implementation of game mechanics, technologies, and/or interactions.
3 – Social and Cultural Impact award will be given to the finalist that is most effective in addressing an important societal and/or cultural issue through game design.
4 – The Audience award will be given to the finalist that will get the most votes from the conference participants.
The awards can be given to a single or multiple game(s). The expert jury panel may also decide not to grant some of the awards if none of the finalists satisfy the criteria mentioned above. Technical Excellence, Experimental Gameplay and Societal Impact awards will be decided by the expert panel while the Audience Award will be decided by the votes of the participants during the conference.
AFTER THE CONFERENCE
Student Game Design Competition papers and 3 minute gameplay videos will be archived in the ACM Digital Library in the CHI PLAY 2024 Companion Proceedings.
QUESTIONS
Please direct any questions to sgdc@chiplay.acm.org.
