Tips for Submitting Your Indie Game to Events

Your game needs to be in a playable state in your application. Playable means the reviewers can download your game, boot it up, and do something meaningful during their time with it. Sending an just idea for a game, a pitch deck, a video, or a promise to have a game ready by the event usually won't cut it, often because it's too much of a risk to save a spot for something that may not materialize.  You can continue to improve you game for the event itself, but the application version needs to work. If you have any doubts, consider making a readme file with known issues, or considering postponing your application.

You don't need to make a specific event build, but reviewers should be able to experience the core game loop and get a good idea of what's happening quickly. Reviewers need to get through a lot of games, so getting to the gameplay quickly is important. Your game may only get 10-15 minutes to shine. Consider putting the option to skip or fast forward any cutscenes, or having a simplified tutorial sequence to let people get to the action as soon as possible. (This also has the bonus of enabling you to get more people through your booth at the event as well.)

Localization is important. Your game should be in English plus the main language of the event, even if there isn't a lot of text in it. Having other regional languages is a bonus, as people often travel for events. If a reviewer can't understand you game, they may not understand it enough to accept it. If you can't afford to localize properly, Google Translate is usually better than nothing, but always run any translations back the other way to see if they actually say what you want them to. Microsoft also makes public localized strings from all of their products including Xbox. The Microsoft Teminology Search is a limited version of their now deprecated and sorely missed Language Portal, but you can still use it to find practical game and UI localized terms.

Speaking of UI, make a menu, with language options and an exit button, and make them easy to access from the title screen. Making a reviewer press Alt-F4 to get back to the desktop is unprofessional, and puts your game in a bad light.

Once you have your event build ready, make sure to update your virus scanner and scan all of your files. The event will likely scan files as well, but just in case, you (hopefully) don't want to be the one that infects everyone else.

Now, all that's left is to package your game up and host it somewhere. Put all of your files into a folder. The folder should include the name of the game and the target operating system. (It's very hard to find things again when every folder is named BuildV_XXX.) When packaging, don't use proprietary software like 7zip or WinRar. Though widely available, you can't assume that everyone has them already installed. A reviewer may just choose to skip your game instead of installing software to unpack it. Unless we're talking about saving actual gigs, just compress it with the default zip option that's widely available and compatible with most operating systems. 

Similarly, host your game in a place that's easy (and free) for reviewers to access. No one is going to pay to download your game, and no one is going to go to any site that looks sketchy. Good options for hosting include Google Drive and Dropbox. Just make sure the link you send is accessible to anyone who has it. You can also upload to itch.io and put a password on the page to keep it accessible but not visible to the public. 

The application form will generally ask for the following elements: company and game descriptions, as well as links to your game, your promotional materials, and your social media accounts.

It's important to fill out every section, even if they're optional. The goals of each event may differ, but likely the final selection committee will be using these answers to ensure that they're receiving a diverse set of games based on whatever metrics they're working with. Examples of this could include making sure they're showing a diverse set of game genres, or that they have games from all of the regions that they'd like to represent. Leaving answers blank gives the reviewers less to work with when considering your game may exclude your game from any of these considerations. 

If the event is not held in English, you should try to fill out the application in the language of the event, but English may also be acceptable as a second language. (This is usually the case in Asia.) Consider using easy English or providing more explanations in this case, as the reviewers may not be native English speakers. Having multiple languages for each answer may be helpful to lower the possibility of misunderstanding through mistranslation. If your native language isn't English or the event language, you may then also want to consider adding this as well if the system allows it and it doesn't become too long.

If you have a game that is not easily playable or accessible for the reviewer, then make sure to explain why in the description, so they know what to expect and don't waste their time trying to play something that needs equipment they don't have. 

Ultimately, your goals for the application should be:

• to showcase your game in the best possible light

• to make it as easy as possible for a reviewer to understand your game with the least amount of time and effort

If your application doesn't seem to meet those goals, or if you think there may be any sort of disconnect, go through the entire application again. This process is similar to that of a submitting a resume, or creating a marketing funnel. Try to put yourself in the mind of the reviewer, who likely doesn't know anything about your game. If you can get someone you know who isn't familiar with your game to review your application, that may help to find any blind spots you may have missed.

At the very end of the process, go through your application and test everything. Test your links and make sure that the game is playable. Make sure your videos play and your images display. Having some mistakes in your descriptions is not the end of the world, but having corrupted files is a big deal. Testing will help keep your application in the best shape.

Now, all you have to do is wait! May the gods of review will shine favorably on your game! 

It may take a few months for reviewers to get through all applications, so don't move or delete any of your files in storage until after you've received your acceptance or rejection. If the links don't work at any point, reviewers will likely reach out to let you know, but they may skip your game all together.

Check your email (or whatever contact method you provided) to the event frequently so you can address any concerns as they arise. Whitelist the event contact information to make sure you actually see any communications. You may only have a few days to respond to anything before you get skipped over, so keeping up-to-date is really important. 

Thank you for reading this far! If you found this useful (or not) please feel free to let me know! Any feedback is much appreciated, because I can use this to help make the post better for others. Oh, and make sure to show me your game! I like making my own games, and love seeing what people are making. 

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