By Jim Rossignol on February 4th, 2012 at 11:27 am.
For the last couple of years Intel have been sponsoring a game design competition called Level Up, and it’s returning in 2012 – although it is branded “2011″ for some reason – with the promise of a $10,000 prize for the winner along with “an opportunity” to get on Steam. The idea is simple: submit a game demo, and potentially win big. The basic rule of thumb is: submit Windows executable demo, and you could be a contender for any number of winner categories. The deadline for submitting is March 19, 2012 at 11:59 PM (U.S. Pacific Time). Admittedly, that basically means those of your who are already working on something are probably the only people in with a chance, but it’s worth a punt for your part-finished game. You can check out past winners of the competition here. The main page for the 2012 event is here, and the rules for entering are here.
04/02/2012 at 11:43 iARDAs says:
This would be a win win situation for everyone involved.
Unles you win of course :)
04/02/2012 at 12:05 lordcooper says:
Some of those categories seem a little poorly chosen.
- Best Art Design
- Best Sound
- Best Character Design
It would be fully possible to focus 99% of your time/energy into one of these aspects and wrap the resulting character/music/sound effects/graphics up in an incredibly crappy ‘game’ where there is only one possible method of interaction. In fact, I may well do this myself.
Also, it seems to be a $10k prize for the winner of each category.
Also, they’re not offering a guaranteed place on Steam.
Thanks for the heads up though :)
EDIT: It isn’t $10k for each winner, there’s a sliding scale.
04/02/2012 at 12:09 Jim Rossignol says:
I’ve amended the Steam mention, the original info I got about this suggested it was a place on Steam as a prize, not “an opportunity” to get on Steam, which it seems to me everyone has, given Steam is open to submissions…
04/02/2012 at 12:16 lordcooper says:
Yeah, that’s definitely a bit of a weird one. I find it a little sketchy that the grand prize is lower if you’re a student too.
04/02/2012 at 12:48 siegarettes says:
I notice there isn’t a category for say, innovation, or game design…
04/02/2012 at 12:40 staberas says:
ITS A TRAP !!
Intel is going to buy you out indies (like they did with project offset) and then cancel your next successful game!!!!!!!!
04/02/2012 at 22:55 SiHy_ says:
Fine, they can buy out my game and business. Then I’ll quit and start up another business with the proceeds. Wouldn’t bother me at all :D
04/02/2012 at 12:47 Carwash says:
It’s probably branded as 2011, because it’s been running since Nov 2011
The Level Up 2011, Intel® Visual Adrenaline Game Demo Challenge, runs from November 29, 2011 12:01 AM (U.S. Pacific Time) to March 19, 2012 at 11:59 PM (U.S. Pacific Time).
04/02/2012 at 12:49 siegarettes says:
I’ll probably enter something, since they only need to be demos. Don’t have too much to work with at the moment however.
I posted some prototypes over on the forums:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/forums/showthread.php?2943-Game-Prototypes-I-ve-Made#post88405
Some feedback on those, and comments on if any of those are worthwhile would be much appreciated.
04/02/2012 at 18:50 blind_boy_grunt says:
I liked gorehounds a bit, the controls are good, some nice exploding pixels and some of the powers are nice and inventive, especially emogirl, because it really changes the way you play. But don’t quit your dayjob yet ;). But if you want more feedback i think something like tigsource is better than the rps forums.
just out of interest where did you get the names list for the random generator?
04/02/2012 at 16:02 Fumarole says:
Fiscal year 2011 most likely.
04/02/2012 at 18:45 Qwibbles says:
I’d imagine one would have to gather some Intel on the competition before entering.
04/02/2012 at 18:49 Doesn'tmeananything says:
You just had to chip in with your pun, didn’t you?
04/02/2012 at 19:14 BobsLawnService says:
That is no wafer them to run a competition, confusing us with those dates.
04/02/2012 at 20:37 MythArcana says:
Make sure you put about 4 minutes of thought into the gameplay, swamp the art with a cartoon shader, and dump plenty of toilet humor on top of it all. This will guarantee a big win.
05/02/2012 at 11:20 Nathan_G says:
Gah, really irritates me to see an overall ‘Best Sound’ category. There should be separate Sound Design and Music categories.
05/02/2012 at 15:14 ZIGS says:
RIP Project Offset. I’ll never forgive you Intel