Skip this if it’s your first read.

1) All members of your team who contributed to the game must submit using the submit form and fill out the form fully and accurately. 
2) All the assets must be uploaded to the acid Discord before the deadline and linked in the project post in the forum.
3) Make sure to upload the code to a public repository with the Apache 2.0 license.
-- Offboard inactive people to avoid the above requirements. 

Spare at least 6 hours for submission to avoid being caught unable to submit due to the time the process takes. Being even 1 minute late will mean disqualification. 

Your team leader buys the form and gives the link to all your team members.

Fmod and Wwise can be used in your game, but their code must not be uploaded to your open-source GitHub repo! Use .gitignore to prevent this. The playable game you submit can use these tools but only under the hood.

A common mistake we see new game developers making is creating cohesion in their game through narrative instead of through their gameplay loop. Example: An Egyptian pyramid adventure game where the player solves different puzzles to uncover the riches of a tomb. 

Games are made of mastering a series of similar challenges are presented players called a gameplay loop.

Unfortunately, most game developers misunderstand how to make a game fun. We encourage you to do our workshop on making games fun. 

• 2nd-time submission:
  
  • How fun is the game? 10/30
  • Radical creativity: Does the theme immerse the player in a unique world? 10/30
  • How does the game look? 5/30
  • How does the game sound? 5/30
• 3rd-time + submission: 
  
  • Did they listen to feedback and improve the experience?  10/30
  • Did they maintain focus on core mechanics rather than add new elements to the detriment of the original concept? 10/30
  • Did they make an effort to improve the fun of the gameplay? 5/30
  • Did they make an effort to bring even more creativity to their idea? 5/30

• First-time submission:
  
  • Usefulness: Does the project represent a prototype of a product which, if fully completed, would accomplish it's goals. 20/40
  • Innovation: Is the idea new and innovative? 10/40
  • Accessibility: How easy is it to navigate and utilize the software? 5/40
  • Art and Feedback: How well does the software utilize art, sound and feedback to increase the user experience? 
• If the project is being resubmitted:
  • Feedback: Did they listen to feedback from the last round and improve the product?  20/40
  • Focus: Did they maintain focus on their core value proposition or get distracted by unnecessary extras? 10/40
  • Innovation: Did they introduce innovations on their project's idea? 5/40
  • Bugs: Did they fix major bugs and improve usability? 5/40

 Legions that are part of our accelerated legion program are instead judged on: 

• [P1] Senate: Does the game satisfy a genuine need in the market? 20/100
  • Can you present proof that players want the sort of game that you are making? 

How captivating is the trailer? Does it grab the viewer's attention and maintain it throughout?
Is it clear & concise? Is it under 2 minutes? Does it show off the product or game in such a way that a person would understand what they are about to download. 
How professional is the presentation? Do the presentation's visuals, camera angles, and art style look a professional? 

Best Picture Overall

Cinematic Excellence (20 points)

Does the film achieve a seamless blend of art, sound, and story through a compelling and unified creative vision?

• Overall quality of art, sound, and story as a combined experience (15 points)
• Artistic vision (5 points)

Story (30 points)

Does the film present a cohesive, emotionally impactful narrative with strong pacing, meaningful themes, and well-crafted dialogue?

• Captivating plot (5 points)
• Cohesive, understandable story (10 points)
• Story pacing and flow (5 points)
• Emotional impact (5 points)
• Strong story themes (5 points)
• Well-written dialogue (if no dialogue, full points are given) (5 points)

Production Quality (35 points)

Does the film demonstrate professional production quality with polished visuals, animation, and sound?

Visuals (20 points)

• Animation
• Art and visual quality

Sound (15 points)

• Music
• Voice acting quality
• Sound effects
• Sound quality

Impact (20 points)

Does the film uplift humanity and deeply touch the audience?

Effectively implements two or more of the following (20 points):

• Has timely themes
• Appeals to universal human experience
• Sparks ongoing positive actions or reflections
• Drives social awareness or change
• Celebrates contributions that advance or uplift the film and/or game industries

Innovation (20 points)

Does the film showcase creativity and originality?

• General creativity (5 points)
• Original ground-breaking techniques (10 points)
• Mixed-media craftsmanship (if any) (up to 5 points extra)

P1 Adherence (30 points)

Does the film align with the values of P1?

• Follows the Cycle themes (10 points)
• Aligns with the values of P1 (10 points)
• Follows guidelines for restricted content (5 points)
• Won a Legion War (5 points)

More (15 points)

Bonus points:

• Trailer/Teaser quality (10 points)
• Aligns with the goals of the creators (portfolio, experimentation, marketing, networking) (5 points)

Total: 170 Points

Additional Awards

Additional awards will only be awarded when the Ignite Host believes that there are enough films competing to give out additional awards.

Best Direction

Recognizes the vision and execution to bring the story to life:

• Artistic Vision: Clear, compelling, and auteur-driven
• Visual storytelling: Pace, flow, direction of team members, overall artistic control of the plot/theme
• Strong direction and technical execution

Best Art

Aesthetic Coherence

How well does the art design support the film’s tone, setting, plot, and theme?

• Clarity and cohesion of art elements without the use of sound and story narrative

Style Innovation

• New, groundbreaking, avant-garde techniques
• Depth, frequency, and cohesion of employed techniques

Detail & Believability

• Character authenticity: Believability through body language, facial expressions
• Accuracy: Historical or fantastical authenticity

Audience Impact

• Emotional range evoked: Engages the audience deeply
• Emotional resonance: Moves audiences on emotional, social, cultural levels using timely themes or universal human experiences
• Contributes to atmosphere, narrative, and sound

Visual Artistry & Environment

• Composition (framing and shot selection)
• Lighting (use of light, shadow, color to convey mood)
• Viewpoints (perspective, movement, and effects to enhance storytelling)

Best Sound

Aesthetic Coherence

How well does the sound design support the film’s tone, setting, plot, and theme?

• Clarity and cohesion of sound elements without relying on art and story narrative
• Flow and pace of music composition, sound effects, and foley

Style Innovation

• New, groundbreaking, avant-garde techniques
• Depth, frequency, and cohesion of employed techniques

Detail & Realism

• Character voice authenticity: Believability through voice, tone, pitch, volume, pauses
• Accuracy: Historical or fantastical sound authenticity

Audience Impact

• Emotional range evoked: Engages the audience deeply
• Emotional resonance: Moves audiences emotionally, socially, or culturally

Sound Artistry & Environment

• Composition: Framing and sound selection to convey mood
• Blending dialogue, ADR, music, sound effects, and foley
• Score: Composition and orchestration to impact the audience

Best Story

Narrative Coherence

How well do narration and dialogue support the film’s tone, setting, plot, and theme?

• Clarity and cohesion of narration and dialogue without art and sound
• Flow and pace of storytelling

Audience Impact

• Emotional range evoked: Engages the audience deeply
• Emotional resonance: Moves audiences emotionally, socially, or culturally

Detail & Realism

• Character design and authenticity: Believability through narration and dialogue
• Accuracy: Historical or fantastical script authenticity

Best Film for Humanity

Cultural and Social Relevance

• Engages with societal issues, promoting positive action or reflection
• Addresses themes contributing to a better understanding of humanity
• Uplifts underrepresented voices or communities

Audience Impact

• Emotional resonance: Moves audiences emotionally, socially, or culturally
• Emotional depth: Engages a wide range of emotions, contributing to the film’s atmosphere.

2024/Jan/14 removed "Judge: Does what has been created, fit the theme for the competition? 20/100"

`*`This is to prevent people loading their team with inactive users to win the bonuses. We can't track everyone so we will check on a few random teams and if the problem is found in the first 4 we will continue to another 4 teams. Every once in awhile we may check in on people who are in the Discord to see if they are legitimate accounts and users this means you should reply to message requests/direct messages from our staff.

`**`We often do large-scale marketing that brings in new people throughout the 2 week process. Integrating brand new members who have just joined the Discord who you didn't get to join but are requesting to join a team also counts. We will give these qualified individuals a special role to mark their eligibility. 

`***` 
Obviously, this small advantage will give teams which have been faithful over multiple iterations without getting through, an advantage. However, those teams are unlikely to be able to keep the theme which somewhat balances this advantage out. 

Added "present in Discord (participants or not)" for next cycle. 1/13/2024