Turfster

@Turfster

he/him

Coder, pun perpetrator
Grumpiness elemental
Hyperbole abuser

Tools programmer
Writer-wannabe
Did translations once upon a time
I contain multitudes

(TurfsterNTE off Twitter)

Trans rights
Black lives matter

Be excellent to each other

UE4/5 Plugins on Itch

nte.itch.io/

Github

github.com/theturfster/

Turfster @Turfster9/12/2023, 9:32 AM

Strawberry Daquiri @StrawberryDaquiri

Aura @MOOMANiBE9/8/2023, 6:24 PM

IGF Submissions are open and that means it's time for my Submission Advice Thread

Hey! IGF Submissions are open! So this'll be the first year IGF is happening and I'm off of twitter, so this means it's time to properly migrate over what is a yearly tradition for me: posting a big post for devs who intend to, or are considering, submitting their games to the Independent Games Festival.

First off, some context because I think a decent portion of the audience is going to be new this year; I've been an IGF Judge for something like the better part of 8-9 years now. I was also a member of the Art Jury last year. I've been doing this long enough that I can speak pretty confidently on what might make you stand out - and what pitfalls you might fall into - as a submittee to IGF. So this post is all about that! Among other things.

Part 1: About IGF

Why Submit?

#igf #Independent Games Festival #aurambles #auraIGF

Aura @MOOMANiBE9/11/2023, 10:25 PM

the consensus was that it probably WAS worth me giving the above a bump with some additional tags that I didn't consider the first time around

so that this isn't merely an empty post bump, here's a fun fact: my favourite IGF acceptance speech EVER was last year's for nuovo, truly an all timer

https://www.twitch.tv/gdc/clip/BravePlainTapirKeyboardCat-6XZo5R9RTLP2VJ9q

#gamedev #indie games #indie game development #igf

Strawberry Daquiri @StrawberryDaquiri9/12/2023, 5:56 AM

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in reply to @MOOMANiBE's post:

hellojed @hellojed9/8/2023, 6:31 PM

If I submit a build can I later update the build with bugfixes if I get a message saying "hey this thing set my computer on fire?"

Aura @MOOMANiBE9/8/2023, 6:39 PM

Yup! This is allowed and expected. (You can even add more polish or content to the game after submission; there's really no restrictions from what I'm aware)

hellojed @hellojed9/8/2023, 6:44 PM

I'll think about it. I had been looking for motivation to go back and do a re-release with bugfixes and whatnot.

Adrian @wtexvisionary9/8/2023, 7:15 PM

Thanks for writing this up! It's going to help a lot of devs.

Can you think of any special considerations for mobile games? I imagine the process is the same: just send Beta Release and TestFlight links.

But do you think it's still worth it ?

Aura @MOOMANiBE9/8/2023, 7:27 PM

I've seen testflight work, tho it's a little awkward since it doesn't quite conform to the assumption the igf interface has of either downloadables or keys.

Sometimes we also just get submissions of games that are free and already released, which is obviously fairly straightforward.

Beyond that, idk, "worth it" is generally pretty relative! I see mobile games get positive comments every year, I don't think there's any specific bias against them, but whether they're likely to win an award is hard to say because the competition is SO tough every year, and I'm not really sure if mobile does publishing deals. YMMV!

D W the Gutless @dwoboyle9/8/2023, 8:16 PM

So I don't have anything ready to submit for this year, but I am working on something that would probably be ready for next year. It is a sequel to a free game I made in 2021. I never submitted that free game to IGF and it's only on itch.io. I've been considering putting out an updated version to Steam for a few bucks in a few months, partly as promotion for my next game. Do you think I should submit it to this year's IGF even though it came out originally in 2021?

Aura @MOOMANiBE9/8/2023, 8:18 PM

There's no time limit on submission! People resubmit older games all the time, updated or not. I'd say feel free.

D W the Gutless @dwoboyle9/8/2023, 8:23 PM

Sounds good. I'll have to remember to do that this weekend then.

sam (best friend)@sambestfriend9/8/2023, 9:04 PM

Thank you so much for sharing this! As a newcomer to the process, it's so so so valuable.

One question about updating builds and Steam keys: how have devs handled creating IGF-specific builds through Steam? Love the idea of using Steam's delivery for smoother bug fixes and updates, but wouldn't necessarily want additional debug features or level-skip public. (Though, perhaps that additional functionality could be hidden behind a cheat code...)

[edit] I haven't published a game through Steam yet so maybe there's a stupidly easy way to do this that I'm not aware of, in which case: sorry 🥴

Aura @MOOMANiBE9/8/2023, 9:37 PM

Steam has a built in way to set up passworded beta branches! Should be able to look it up in the steamworks documentation.

SuperBiasedGary @SuperBiasedGary9/27/2023, 4:48 PM

Just wanted to come back to this post and thank you for it.
I've applied to IGF this year and I would not have done it without your encouragement. 🙌

Aura @MOOMANiBE9/27/2023, 5:12 PM

good luck!! :D

in reply to @MOOMANiBE's post:

Geo @georgio9/12/2023, 1:36 AM

beautiful, brings a tear to my eye

Alexandra IDV ✨💙@AlexandraIDV9/12/2023, 8:05 AM

The submission page talks about how you can apply for a waiver of the submission fee if it would otherwise prevent you from entering - do you know anything about how this works? I'm sort of expecting so many applicants and so few getting selected that it's not even worth trying, but I don't know how close that is to reality.

Aura @MOOMANiBE9/12/2023, 4:38 PM

I'm afraid I don't know much about how that works! But that said, I think a lot of people miss that that's an option entirely so you may have less competition there than you think

Alexandra IDV ✨💙@AlexandraIDV9/12/2023, 7:00 PM

Thank you, I'll try it, then.