This year’s Edge Get Into Games Challenge is open for entries
Win a Unity Pro licence, a trip to Unite in Boston, and the chance to show your game at this year’s Dare Proto Play.
Our fourth Get Into Games Challenge, in association with Unity and Abertay University, is now officially open for entries. This year’s theme is ‘loot’.
You can interpret the theme however you wish. Perhaps you’ll construct a game about gathering riches, or escaping from the burden of a fortune, about theft, or one based on finding a single valuable item from among a sea of junk. It’s entirely up to you, but as ever, we’ll be seeking the most creative interpretations of the theme, technical merit and originality in your entries.
We’ll draw up a shortlist of the best games once the competition has closed, and those will then be judged by the Edge team as well as a panel of game industry notables. This year, that group includes Doom and Quake designer John Romero, Funomena co-founder Robin Hunicke, Unity co-founder David Helgason, and Dayna Galloway from Abertay.
This year’s prize is our biggest yet. Unity will furnish the winning team with one Unity Professional Edition Licence, including iOS Pro and Android Pro deployment addons (collectively worth £3,000), plus a trip for one to Unite 2015 in Boston. The conference takes place September 21–23, and you’ll be provided with a ticket, a return flight and accommodation for three nights.
In addition, Abertay University will grant you stand space at this year’s Dare ProtoPlay festival (taking place August 13–16 in Dundee), which welcomed some 13,000 visitors in 2014, and also pay for accommodation and UK travel for two members of your team. Altogether, it’s an incredible opportunity to network and showcase your work.
Don’t worry if you miss out on the top spot, however, because the two runners-up will each also receive a Unity Pro licence with the same two addons as the winner. You’ll find the rules, details on how to submit your game, and full terms and conditions at bit.ly/GIG2015.
Last year’s challenge, the theme for which was ‘protest’, was won by George Ing, whose fast-paced RTS One Minute To Midnight won over the judges with its simple, polished gameplay and stylish looks. In it, players must establish their influence over areas of a city by occupying every building on the map with protestors. Warpfish’s Outcry and Mike Chambers’ Nautical Protest nabbed the runners-up spots, both approaching the brief from unusual angles. Warpfish portrayed the urgency with which voices must be gathered to protest effectively In Outcry, forcing you to dash through a level collecting sympathisers to your cause. Nautical Protest, meanwhile, played on the literal meaning of its title – a formal declaration made by a ship’s master to protect himself from liability for goods damaged by circumstances beyond his control.
That was last year, but now it’s your turn. Keep an eye on our social channels and bit.ly/GIG2015 for updates on the competition, as well as advice on how to get through the process of creating your own game. To start you off, we’ve spoken to the past three winners of BAFTA’s Ones To Watch award – given to a team from Abertay University’s Dare To Be Digital student game challenge – and asked them to share their tips on game jam best practice and the pitfalls to avoid. You can read that at www.bit. ly/1FSZ58Q. We look forward to seeing your entries. Good luck!
As ever, we’ll be seeking creative interpretations of the theme, technical merit and originality