What is this all about? A Game By Its Cover is an independent game development competition that challenges game developers to create new games based on fictional game artwork, whose creators probably never imagined would ever become something real! The work of one person inspires another.
What should I do?
Pick a fictional game artwork from our archive or elsewhere on the internet.
Use it as inspiration to make a real game out of it.
Create a discussion for your game in the Planning category.
Get to know other game creators on this site until the competition begins.
What are the full guidelines?
Each entry must be based solely on one source image.
More than one entry can be based on the same image, there are no dibs.
Entries should be started and finished within the timeframe of the competition (feel free to put up your game discussions and begin brainstorming earlier, though) and must be made for the competition only.
Create a discussion for your game, making sure you put it in the “Planning” category.
Within the first post of your discussion, post the image that you’ll be using as inspiration.
If possible, post a link to the original website where the image can be found.
Use the cart primarily as a source of inspiration. You do not need to tie yourself to any elements of the cart (like title, art style or any descriptions), and are in fact encouraged to take it in an original path.
Use carts that show original concepts and design. Avoid things like “Modern Warfare 2 on Atari 2600” or “Twilight as an NES game”. Remember, we’re here to praise originality and creativity!
Do not use your own images, or images that haven’t been made specifically to be fake carts/disks/boxes.
Do not alter the original image in any way (other than resizing it for display in the discussion).
Collaborations are allowed, welcome and encouraged.
You may use existing frameworks/engines that you or others have coded for your games.
However, the game itself must be made entirely for this competition.
There are no restrictions or limitations as to how your game should look/work, except that your game must not alter or damage anything about the player’s computer, though that should go without saying. Even if you choose a fake NES cart, you don’t have to make the game with NES restrictions (but feel free to do so if that floats your boat). Be aware that your game should work on as many operating systems as possible to make sure people can actually play your game in order to vote for it.
AGBIC does not claim ownership of anything you make. It’s all yours!
If your game possesses NSFW or otherwise potentially offensive content, put in disclaimers BOTH on the thread AND within the game itself as the first thing visitor/players see.
You may submit more than one game (up to a maximum of three), but remember it’s about quality not quantity.
Given the timescale of the competition - keep it simple. Don’t try to create the next Zelda!
If you cancel your entry, simply change its category to “Cancelled”.
When you finish your entry, change its category to “Finished”. Only games that belong to that category will be eligible for voting.
Offer feedback to your fellow participants throughout the competition.
Be excellent to each other.
Are there any awards and prizes? Other than the warm fuzzy feeling you get for taking part, exact prizes are still being finalised. But there will be six prizes, as follows:
Individual prizes overall 1st/2nd/3rd places.
Best visuals.
Best audio.
Most wanted game (that wasn’t finished).
In addition, the winning games will be shown at GameCity7—Europe’s biggest and best-loved videogame culture festival—between October 20th and 27th.
Hasn’t there already been an AGBIC competition? The first (and last) AGBIC competition organised on TIGForums was run by Melly in 2010. We have his blessing for the competitions we will be running on this new site. He also wrote the first draft of these guidelines, so thanks for that too!
When is the competition? The competition will run from midnight to midnight: 17 June – 18 August 2012 (ends 23:59 GMT) The voting period will follow for an as yet undecided period of time.
What should I do before the competition starts? You should start planning, perhaps find team members, do some design and generally get ready!
