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IndieCade 2014 Submissions

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IndieCade was established to create vibrant festivals and showcases dedicated to independent games and open to the public. It is our goal to showcase exciting and innovative new work, host productive networking environments, hold important discussions, and have fun.
IndieCade invites independent game artists and designers from around the world to submit interactive media of all types for inclusion in our 2014 Festival. Works-in-progress are encouraged.
A diverse jury of leaders from industry, academia, fine arts and indie development will select our annual finalists and assign top awards at the IndieCade 2014 Festival. All entries for the Festival will also receive consideration for presentation at IndieCade Showcases.
It is IndieCade's ultimate goal to bring the eye of the public and industry to your games. IndieCade is an independent organization. All submission fees are used specifically to cover the costs associated with processing your submission and you are also provided with a Festival pass that provides complimentary particpation in the IndieXchange and feedback on your game. Regular submissions is $ 80 USD and late submissions $ 110 USD. Read below to find out what you get for your fees in more detail.
For more details about the submissions process and qualifications please read below or check out our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).

Submission Dates

IndieCade will be accepting game submissions March 1, 2014 through May 15, 2014.

Late submissions will be accepted from May 15 to June 15th for an additional processing fee.

What do I get for submitting?

• All games submitted are considered by the jury to become finalists for the IndieCade 2014 festival and awards.
All games submitted are eligible to be considered by IndieCade curators for display as an official selection at the IndieCade 2014 festival.
• All teams who submit a game will receive passes to IndieCade’s IndieXchange and are eligible for participation. The IndieXchange has two components, the first being a individual matchmaking service for networking and meeting with publishers, arts leaders, and potential funders. This includes both a remote and an in person component. The second is an invitation to a series of practical workshops held on-site the day prior to IndieCade’s main conference, October 9th, 2014. To opt into this program you must indicate this on your submission form. This invitation-only program is free-of-charge for developers who submit to IndieCade. In-person meeting and workshop space is limited so you must RSVP. For more information about the IndieXchange, please visit the page on our website for general information Questions? Check out the FAQ).
• All teams who submit a game will receive one complimentary pass to the IndieCade Festival ($200+ value). Finalists will also receive a free conference pass.
• IndieCade has instituted a new system for feedback. This year we will provide a solid detailed review from a hand selected reviewer..

What do I get if you are selected for a showcase?

• All of the basic benefits listed above for submitting your game.
• Gamemakers and their teams will be supplied with passes to any showcase event to which they are selected. They will also be invited to all related social events.
• Games and gamemakers will be featured on the IndieCade website and promoted though IndieCade social media and traditional publicity channels (media releases, publicists).
• IndieCade will provide finalists with standard PC computers/consoles, monitors, headphones, and signs for your game. Developers of mobile games may be asked to bring their own devices. Developers of custom installation, pervasive, performance, or other alternative genres should plan on bringing their own specialized equipment, although standard equipment such as projection and display monitors may be provided by IndieCade. Board game developers are expected to provide a playable copy of their game.

What do I get if I am selected as a finalist for the festival?

• All of the basic benefits listed above for submitting your game.
• All finalist games are considered for all award categories.
• Gamemakers and their teams will be supplied two VIP all-access tickets to IndieCade 2014 and the accompanying awards celebration.
• Gamemakers and their teams will be invited to all social events associated with IndieCade, as well as featured VIP receptions and gatherings.
• IndieCade will provide finalists with standard PC computers/consoles, monitors, headphones, and signs for your game. Developers of mobile games may be asked to bring their own devices. Developers of custom installation, pervasive, performance, or other alternative genres should plan on bringing their own specialized equipment, although standard equipment such as projection and display monitors may be provided by IndieCade. Board game developers are expected to provide a playable copy of their game.
• IndieCade will feature all finalist games and teams on the website and promote them via social media. This includes an online developer profile as part of IndieCade online festival promotion. IndieCade’s publicists will promote the games via traditional strategies prior to the event and will be on hand at the event to promote the games.

How do I submit?

Standard submissions close May 15, 2014, and Late submissions close June 15, 2014. To submit your game you will follow the process outlined below:

1. Fill out the online entry form.
2. Agree to the terms and conditions.
3. Submit the processing fee prior to the deadline.
4. Upload, postmark, or supply a link or a minimum of three download codes for your game by midnight (end of day) May 15, 2014 or June 15 for late submissions. For games that require custom builds, UDID, console accounts for gifting, or other such information, you must clearly a) provide required information and b) state the information you need to submit the playable build, and you will be supplied with this information as jurors are assigned to your game. For iOS games, we have an anonymous process for transferring UDIDs through the jury system anonymous email and then ask you to create a custom builds of your game for these unique UDIDs.
5. You may save and edit your submission as many times as you want; please know, however, once the initial juror begins to review your game s/he may not see the same version as a later juror.
6. Once you hit the submit button, you may continue to update your submission until the deadline, May 15, 2014 or , June 15, 2014 at which point all submissions will close and no further changes may be made to your submission.
7. IMPORTANT: Only paid submissions will be considered. Be sure and pay for your submission prior to the deadline. Unpaid submissions will not be marked as complete and will not be eligible for review or inclusion in IndieCade’s Festival or Showcases.

Submission Processing Deadlines and Fees

Regular submissions open March 1 and late submissions will be accepted until June 15, 2014.
IndieCade is an independent organization. All submission fees are used specifically and entirely to cover the costs associated with processing your submission. Please see the FAQ sheet for more specific information for exactly where the money from your fees pay for.

Submissions require a $80 processing fee and close May 15, 2014, late submissions will be accepted from May 16 – June 15, 2014 for a $110 processing fee.

If you have a discount code you may apply only one code per entry. Discount codes are only applicable for the regular submission. If you are in need of a scholarship, please fill out the appropriate form in the submission form or send an email directly to scholarships@indiecade.com.

Why do you charge so much money to submit a game and where does my money go?

IndieCade is an independent organization and volunteers-based organization, - no one is getting rich on this. We are probably as indie as you are, if not more so. Fees are directly applied to the cost to do the best job we can to review, respect, and jury your games. Game processing fees are applied directly to the following; 1) Submissions and jury software development: IndieCade has built a custom system and continues to build and maintain this system; 2) Reviews: Developers have asked for better reviews and based on your input we are initiating an expanded review process and true coverage system, you will get a solid detailed review from a hand selected reviewer, but this costs us a substantial part of the fees to be able to provide this; 3) And finally a percentage of the fees go to the annual server and storage fees, as well as payment system fees. Note; For more information please visit the FAQ.

Eligibility

To be eligible for IndieCade, your game must not have funding from a major publisher (for a list of major publishers see http://www.theesa.com/about/members.asp) You can have other deals with these publishers, but the game you are submitting may not. Your game can have funding from other sources, including investments, grants, crowd sourcing or other funding apparatus.
Submission to or inclusion in other festivals does not preclude eligibility in any way. Previously submitted games may be resubmitted provided they: 1) Were not finalists in a previous IndieCade Festival; 2) Have undergone significant changes since the last submitted version; 3) We suggest a new or altered name that clearly indicates a different version.
There is no age requirement for submission.
IndieCade has an inclusive submissions policy and invites submissions of all styles and genres of games, including PC, browser-based, casual, puzzle, mobile, ARGs, Big Games and installation-based games (submitted via video if not playable on-site), mods (provided they conform to game engine licensing agreements), serious games, documentary games, activist games, art games, virtual worlds and "sandbox" style games, and more! We also welcome student games and games developed by universities, schools and non-profit organizations. All types are not only welcome; they are encouraged. Innovation is the name of the game.
Works in progress are permitted and encouraged, but they should include at least one finished, playable level.
All game content and copyrighted material must be fully owned by the designers/developers; if outside material is used, legal permission must be secured or your game will be disqualified. If you plan to submit a work that is on a non-standard game operating system (e.g., Linux, Atari), please plan to submit review hardware and have a representative on-site to be responsible for installation, or to supply hardware with the game fully installed to the Festival.

Submission Schedule

All games may be updated until the deadline, at which point all submission close (at midnight PST on May 15, 2014 and June 15, 2014 for late submissions). Submissions will be confirmed within one week of completion.
Entries will be selected by a diverse jury consisting of game designers, artists, curators and academics.
Finalists will be contacted by August 30, 2014. All entrants are informed of their games’ status before any official announcement is made. Rejection notices will be accompanied with feedback from the jurors if it is available.

How To Successfully Fund Your Indie Game on Kickstarter Or, Why Your Kickstarter Failed and What You Need to do Better

By justin silk,

            
    So you've got an idea for a short film or game and you're looking for funding. Or maybe you already tried to run a crowdfunding campaign and things didn't turn out exactly as you'd planned.
Sites like Kickstarter and IndieGoGo have been tremendously successful in securing funds for hundreds (thousands?) of creative projects, but you can't expect to simply throw your idea online and watch the cash pour in.
Running a successful Kickstarter campaign takes huge amount of pre-planning, and a well-balanced course of action for generating interest and publicity for your project.
Here are some valuable tips for putting together a Kickstarter campaign that people will want to support. Remember, you're asking for their money based on an idea and the good-faith that you'll follow through, so you should be putting as much time and effort into your Kickstarter presentation as you can possibly spare:

1. The idea isn't enough, you need to have a proof of concept.

This is probably the single most common mistake we see on crowd-funding sites. Someone has a good idea—even a great idea—and in the initial rush of excitement they cobble together a pitch and release it into the wild.
The idea isn't enough!
Unless you're someone with a legendary track record like Tim Schafer and can raise three million dollars on the power of your legacy alone, the Kickstarter community wants to see more than just an idea before they'll offer you their support.
Ideas are a dime a dozen—execution is the hard part, and if you want to see your project successfully funded, the consumer needs to know that you can make good on your promises.
Take your project as far as you possibly can before you put it up on Kickstarter or IndieGoGo. The campaigns with the greatest success rate are the ones that are furthest along at launch.

2. The presentation needs to be polished.

We live in the DSLR era, and the average web-denizen has grown to expect a certain level of polish when it comes to video presentations on the web. Don't film your pitch with a smartphone in some poorly lit corner of your apartment.
Make it nice!
If you don't have a camera that can shoot professional looking video, think about renting a DSLR and a decent lens for a couple days. There are several web-sites that rent out really good camera equipment at very reasonable rates—take advantage of it!
Or if you're not up to the task, think about hiring someone to handle it for you. Don't balk at the idea of spending a little bit of money on your presentation—there's risk, but if it's going to give your campaign a leg up then it's ultimately worth it.
In addition to your video, try to make your presentation visually enticing, with a well-executed logo, cohesive color scheme, and plenty of multi-media. Sketches, concept-art, 3D Models, storyboards—this stuff can really add to a presentation, and your pitch needs to be as good as you can possibly make it.

3. The more funding you need, the more awareness you need!

The best presentation in the world won't yield a successful campaign if nobody sees it, and the more money your asking for the more backers you'll need to find.
Films and games don't come cheap, so if you need five digit funding you need to dig deeper than your 200 Twitter followers for support.
The best way to raise the sort of awareness required for a major development project is to receive legitimate media coverage from an industry news outlet like Joystiq, Kotaku, GameInformer, Machinima, etc.
Make a thorough list of all the publications you can think of in the niche you're trying to serve. Put together some sort of press-package and find out how you can reach out to the websites on your list. The more interviews you give, and feature posts you score the better off you'll be.
Think of creative ways to get your project out there. Don't be afraid to ask for plugs or mentions, even from well-known personalities (especially from well known personalities). I can't tell you how many Kickstarter projects I've see Neil Gaiman retweet. If people see something they're interested in, they'll be glad to help you out, and even if they say no at least you'll have tried.

4. Make sure you have a well-rounded marketing plan.

When I say well-rounded, I mean well-rounded. Alongside your media blitz, you should be promoting from every angle you can think of.
Buy a domain as soon as possible and set up a landing page with an email opt-in form. In web-marketing there's a well-worn trope that “the money is in the (e-mail) list," and when you actually have a product you're trying to promote there's a lot of truth to it. Get as many people to your landing page as possible, and make sure the page is interesting enough for them to want to cough-up their contact info.
In addition to Twitter and Facebook (which should be a no-brainer), start uploading incremental progress updates on both YouTube and Vimeo in the weeks leading up to your campaign. Link back to your landing page as often as you can without being spammy—forum signatures and profiles are perfect for this sort of thing.

5. Don't go live too early, but don't wait too long either.

Last but not least, make sure you put some thought into how you time your launch.
Because Kickstarter and IndieGoGo make you set a finite campaign length to raise the cash, timing can be incredibly important.
Try to begin your marketing push at least a few weeks early, and then launch your campaign just as public awareness begins to peak. But don't wait too long. If you know that your project is going to be featured on a well-trafficked blog, for example, make sure your campaign is up and running at least a few days in advance.

There you go!

Obviously this isn't the "definitive guide to Kickstarter," but hopefully you learned something and came away with a better idea of what it takes to run a successful crowdfunding campaign.
If you missed yesterday's article on why now is the best time ever for indie development, make the jump and check it out here!
Good luck!