Deadline 2009: The final deadline for both game and concept document delivery is the 26th of April.
The rules for the concept document may be found here.
§1 General
§1.1 Norwegian Game Awards (NGA) reserves the right to decide whether an entry may compete or not, and is in no way responsible for the submissions.
§1.2 The competition is divided into two steps. The first step is to submit a concept document (voluntary, but necessary to be considered for the best concept award). The second submission is referred to as the final entry. The teams who have submitted a concept document may submit a revised concept document together with the final entry.
Clarification: An empty concept document disqualifies an entry. Note: See the specific rules of the competition for details of the final entry.
§1.3 Entries and participants may not be associated with, or sponsored by, a company in the games or entertainment industry. An entry that violates this rule will be disqualified. Clarification: It is allowed to start a company associated with the entry. The purpose of the rule is to keep the competition student-oriented and prohibit professional game developers from established companies from competing.
§1.4 Members of the organizing group (NGA) may not participate in any form in any of the competitions hosted by NGA. This does also apply to members of Start NTNU.
§1.5 If the entry has been nominated in the competition an earlier year, the jury will decide if there is enough to be nominated for this year’s competition. Clarification: NGA pushes for innovative games and don’t want “polished” games from earlier competitions.
§1.6 A competing team owns all the rights to its entry. However, NGA reserves the right to use screenshots and the game trailer for publicity purposes.
Note: You may contact the NGA Organizing Team with requests about exceptions from this rule.
§1.7 NGA reserves the right to modify the rules of the competition.
Note: The purpose of this rule is to prohibit a team from taking advantage of any shortcomings in the rules.
§1.8 Award nominees and winners are selected by the competitions jury, and its decision cannot be appealed.
§1.9 The entry must not have been published or marketed actively prior to the competition.
Clarification: Having entered other competitions, being mentioned by media, or having a project website is allowed.
Note: Due to cooperation between the Gathering 2009 and NGA, entries submitted to the Gamedev-compo of the Gathering are allowed to participate in NGA, if they have not been released to the public before the NGA finale.
§1.10 The final entry must contain a playable demo and an in game trailer. Lack of either leads to disqualification.
§2 Technology
§2.1 The categories will be announced on NGA’s kick-off event and NGA web page.
§2.2 Entries compete must run on a PC with the Windows XP operating system. Plug-Ins needed must be specified and easy accessible for the jury. For exception, contact NGA.
Clarification: The entries may use special hardware such as hand controllers or homemade input devices, but they should be sent to NGA prior to jury weekend and will be returned shortly after.
Note: The jury computer specifications will be available as soon as they have been finalized.
§2.3 Entries are allowed to use existing technology (such as libraries, graphics engines, game makers, etc.) and existing media (such as images, 3D models, sound effects, etc.). However, teams must have the right to use the technology and media, as well as the right to submit the final entry to NGA for judgment, i.e. respect copyrights and any applicable license agreements. Any use of existing technology or media must be documented in the final entry. The jury will take this into consideration when judging submissions.
Note: All teams are fully responsible for any legal issues related to their entries. NGA are not responsible for any copyright infringements or other legal issues that entries might be involved in.
§2.4 Entries that are modifications of existing games are not allowed.
§2.5 Any trademarks used in the final entry must be complemented by an explicit permission from the trademark’s owner. This permission must be submitted together with the documentation in the final entry. Violations of this rule will lead to disqualification from the competition. See rule §1.3 for exceptions.
§3 Participants
§3.1 NGA aims to promote game development within the educational system of Norway. Therefore at least half of the participants in each team must be students at any Norwegian educational program and participate actively in the development of the entry. The nominated may be asked for documentation.
Clarification: By Norwegian educational program, NGA means education up to, and including, masters level.
§3.2 The participating team may add or remove participants during the course of the competition, however, a complete list of team members must be submitted within 3 weeks of the deadline.
§3.3 A participant may be a member of at most two participating teams.
§3.4 With the contribution there must be at team-contract, which specifies the distribution of price money.
Comments: Any questions or requests regarding the rules should be directed to rules@gameawards.no
