FREE MONTHS OF PRO · CASH PRIZES · GAMESALAD 2014 GAME JAM!

dgackey

Hey folks!

Many of you are familiar with the promotion we ran earlier in the year where we offered you a FREE MONTH of Pro in exchange for publishing to Kindle. Well, we're back with a new promotion that you're going to love even more: the GameSalad Arcade Game Jam!

GameSalad Game Jam 2014 is a series of rapid game development competitions using the GameSalad Creator that culminate in cash and prizes, promotion on GameSalad Arcade and Amazon, and the ultimate bragging rights in GameSalad game development. There are two competitions, each with a different theme, with two weeks to develop your game and submit your entry.

The top three games from both Game Jam competitions will be selected by GameSalad staff to receive a year of GameSalad Pro membership, and additional promotion for the game and the developer.

Additionally, 6 winners will be drawn at random to receive these fabulous prizes!

• (1) Grand Prize Winner will get $1,000 USD and a year of GameSalad Pro
• (2) Second Place Winners will receive $500 USD and a year of GameSalad Pro
• (3) Third Place Winners will each receive an Amazon Kindle Fire 8.9” HDX tablet

All approved game entries will receive a free month of GameSalad Pro and be posted in a special section of GameSalad Arcade for each competition. The best entries as decided by GameSalad staff will also be posted on a GameSalad Arcade channel on Amazon*

You only have two weeks, so focus on replay value and fun. Think "cartoon short" rather than "epic movie." Each game however must be fully functional, contain at least one complete level, and be otherwise polished and free of bugs. All games submitted need to be designed for and tested on touch devices as well as desktop browsers.

*GameSalad will publish select games on Amazon for promotional purposes, with developers retaining all IP rights.

Click here for Official Rules.

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Game Jam Theme #1: "Soaring to New Heights"

End Date: Nov 6, 2014

To enter your game into the Game Jam:

1. Publish your game to GameSalad Arcade.
2. Make sure your game’s Visibility is set to Public Game and you’ve filled out all necessary fields.
3. Double check the Subject Matter section to make sure everything is correct.
4. Once your game is ready, on the Incentives tab of your publishing portfolio game for the page click the “THIS GAME IS READY TO JAM” button for the appropriate Game Jam.
5. Each game can only be entered into a single Game Jam.

gingagaming

This is a great promo! Thanks guys.

BBEnk

@dgackey

GameSalad Arcade channel on Amazon

what is that?

dgackey

@BBEnk‌ it's something new we're working on with them. A channel on any Android devices that can access the Amazon store. We'll be promoting top Arcade games and developers there.

Armelline

I'll probably make a game for the fun of it, but I don't think I'll be able to enter it due to this rule:

8. Rights Granted by you: By entering this content you understand that GameSalad, anyone acting on behalf of GameSalad, or its respective licensees, successors and assigns will have the right, where permitted by law, without any further notice, review or consent to print, publish, broadcast, distribute, and use, worldwide in any media now known or hereafter in perpetuity and throughout the World, your entry, including, without limitation, the entry and winner's name, portrait, picture, voice, likeness, image or statements about the Sweepstakes, and biographical information as news, publicity or information and for trade, advertising, public relations and promotional purposes without any further compensation.

I just can't agree to give you permission to use my picture, voice and likeness, worldwide and in perpetuity.

dgackey

Note the immediately following phrase "about the Sweepstakes". Anything else would by definition be out of the scope of the agreement.

This is fairly standard legal stuff for any kind of event where prizes are awarded and the company awarding the prizes would like to feature the winners.

Armelline

@dgackey said:
Note the immediately following phrase "about the Sweepstakes". Anything else would by definition be out of the scope of the agreement.

That's not what it says, it says "or statements about the Sweepstakes". The "about the Sweepstakes" only applies to the statements. Are you confirming that entering doesn't give GS/Amazon the right to use my name, picture, voice and likeness (without further notice, review or consent)?

This is fairly standard legal stuff for any kind of event where prizes are awarded and the company awarding the prizes would like to feature the winners.

It's a hell of a scope though. Too much for me. I guess the aim would have to be an entry good enough to be legitimate and valid for a month of pro, but not good enough to likely win. (I jest ofc.)

Gamelover456

1. How many games can you submit?
2. Do the games have to be new projects or can you just update your current games and submit them?

dgackey

@Armelline‌

Don't know what to tell you except that the lawyers draft stuff like this to protect us, and all we're trying to do is offer promotions that benefit both our users and partners. I certainly understand your apprehension though.

@Gamelover456‌

You can submit as many games as you want. Each game that's approved gets a free month and another entry into the sweepstakes. But each game can only be entered into one game jam (so if you enter a game for this first jam, you can't also submit it for the 2nd jam).

The games don't have to be new projects for this, but given that they will be running on Arcade on mobile devices, that should be taken into consideration. Just make sure they run well and you'll be golden.

Armelline

@dgackey said:
Armelline‌

Don't know what to tell you except that the lawyers draft stuff like this to protect us, and all we're trying to do is offer promotions that benefit both our users and partners. I certainly understand your apprehension though.

Well regardless of anything else, I'll be making a game for the competition for the fun of it, I just don't know if I'll actually be submitting it. Not going to let legalese get in the way of a good little challenge

The agreement also seems to give GS/Amazon complete and unlimited rights to use and distribute the winning games as they see fit, forever. It doesn't seem to preclude the maker of the game from also distributing the winning game as they themselves see fit. Does this mean "open source" entries are valid? That is to say, could a person enter, win and then release their game as a free (or paid) template?

pHghost

How closely should we stick to the theme? Especially considering already finished games, this is quite important to know.

Great new incentive! Hope there are more coming round Christmas, like last year!

dgackey

[quote]The agreement also seems to give GS/Amazon complete and unlimited rights to use and distribute the winning games as they see fit, forever. It doesn't seem to preclude the maker of the game from also distributing the winning game as they themselves see fit[/quote]

Again, it's just boilerplate stuff designed to protect us which is why we explicitly call out the fact in the blog entry that we're requiring the ability to promote the games in Amazon's channels but developers retain all rights to their products.

And yes, a person could enter, win, and do whatever they want with the template, short of removing it prior to the end of the promotion. Our only interest here is in promoting GS on Amazon's platform.

@pHghost‌ the theme will be factored in to the judging of the Game Jam winners, but that has no bearing on the overall sweepstakes chances. So if your game had no connection to the theme at all, you'd potentially miss out on some bragging rights, a forum badge and a year of pro. But you could still win the sweepstakes with that game and get a year of Pro and $1000, so there's plenty of ways to win

Speedy007

Interesting new twist to gamesalad. I may put a project on hold and try this event out. Perhaps I may adjust the game I am messing with now to fit the theme.

The theme is soar to new heights correct? Hmmm I have an Idea...Gonna have to cram though if all I get is two weeks...Usually takes me a month for a game...

But since the game only must contain at least "one" complete level the art would be my main problem...Since I do not have to do a full game...

iamcartez

Great another contest!

Gamelover456

submitted Minigame Survival, Crush The Button, and Christmas Trivia 2 for the contest. Will submit the rest of my game collection tomorrow.

Bigeater

Hi, i have publish my game app as public. However, despite i follow the instruction of clicking the tick box "public" before clicking publish, when i go to the incentive tab and click start game jam, i was prompted "You cannot enter this game jam unless you publish this game to arcade and make it public." anyone encounter such issue? in addition, you can only hear the sound effect on google chrome browser instead (just sharing)

BobD

Can we submit games where we modified purchased templates (Code and Graphics) ?

jonmulcahy

The spirit of a game jam is to code and design everything from scratch during the jam window. I feel that submitting prior games or templates other people have made really isn't acceptable.

jonmulcahy

@Armelline said:
I'll probably make a game for the fun of it, but I don't think I'll be able to enter it due to this rule:

I just can't agree to give you permission to use my picture, voice and likeness, worldwide and in perpetuity.

This blurb is probably in any contest you've ever entered, any American contest anyway. If you google the statement "the right, where permitted by law, without any further notice, review or consent to print, publish, broadcast, distribute, and use, worldwide in any media now known or hereafter in perpetuity and throughout the World, your entry, including, without limitation" you will get tons of matches from all over the place.

Ed_Perkin

Can I submit a game that has only a few levels and is not entirely finished? E.g mountain mayhem see blog (in latest forum posts)

Moogus

This is a really great idea !

Reading into the agreement the only concern I would have is if the game goes stratospheric you wouldn't get any cash for sales, is that right ??

Also would that mean if only do one level that anyone connected with the competition could further develop the game and therefore get the wonga for it ??? @‌dcgakey

Only asking, its a bit like doing the lottery choosing all the right numbers and forgetting to buy ticket !!

tlsdave

Sounds awesome!

At what point will submitters for the Jam receive the Free Month of Pro (assuming their game is approved)?

Armelline

..

app_sauce

@jonmulcahy‌ I totally agree with you. I was pumped to start this jam but it's disheartening that people want to take the easy way out. Hopefully gs doesn't accept games that don't go with the theme at the least.

Gamelover456

I don't mind about the rewards, I am just submitting my games for the free months of GameSalad Pro.

jonmulcahy

@dgackey said:

*GameSalad will publish select games on Amazon for promotional purposes, with developers retaining all IP rights.

so how does this work? If I create a game and I want to publish it to iOS and Amazon, I can publish it on iOS myself, and if you decide to not publish it, I can publish it on amazon, otherwise it would be published by you?

StormyStudio

I've been away for a wee while... I might come back to tackle this though... for the fun of a proper game jam.

wij_man

Hi,

If I publish a game with adverts and it were to get picked up and promoted, I would get all the revenue from it right? From both GS Arcade and Amazon...?

I'm working on a game which fits this theme perfectly and we're weeks away from launching, I like the idea of this competition, but not if it will actually mean a drop in revenue for me if the game is popular! lol

BigDave

Great some extra months of membership are welcome!

dgackey

@jonmulcahy‌ yeah, we wanted to make it fun and have a contest where folks could showcase some really awesome stuff, but we also wanted to give users a way to earn some free months and show that GameSalad is easy to use and there are a ton of games made with it, so we're trying to support both of those goals here.

It's not a traditional game jam to be sure, but I think there's a little something for everybody.

Cheers,

Dan

dgackey

@jonmulcahy said:
so how does this work? If I create a game and I want to publish it to iOS and Amazon, I can publish it on iOS myself, and if you decide to not publish it, I can publish it on amazon, otherwise it would be published by you?

For this event, we need the ability to publish to Amazon via the GS Arcade channel for promotional purposes, but you could publish to iOS, Android, wherever else. And I believe once the promotion has run its course (not clear on the dates) you'd be free to publish to the Amazon store again, as well.