How to Enter a Game for a Competition

Interested in participating in one of our monthly competitions? First, try to stick to our three guiding rules:

1. Each game must be made in less than seven days,
2. Each game must be made by exactly one person,
3. Each game must be based around a common theme i.e. “gravity”, “vegetation”, “swarms”, etc.

Leave a Comment

After making the game, be sure and leave a comment in the comment section for the theme. For instance for the 100 Things theme you’d leave a comment: HERE. When leaving a comment, be sure to include the following:

1. A link to your game.
2. Directions on how to play your game – if you have your own site it’s best to include them there as well.
3. A short description – what’s your game about? How does it follow the theme? How long did it take to make it?

Once you’ve left a comment we’ll play your game and include it in our monthly roundup. Our community is very active, so you’ll likely start getting feedback on your game as soon as you post it.

Common Questions

What format should my game be in?
Whatever is easiest for you to make a game – people have made games in Flash, Gamemaker, Unity 3D, Ogre, their own homemade engines, etc.

How should I submit my game?
In general, the easiest/preferable way to submit a game is by sending us a link to your own site – not only does this increase traffic to your own space of the web, but it allows you to give players more information than the 2-3 lines to which we are limited. One word of advice, the easier someone can play your game, the better. If you’ve zipped your game, make sure it’s in a folder of the same name – a lot of people unzip games on their desktop, and having 30 new files suddenly show up after unzipping your game can be disconcerting. Likewise having to install your game before playing it just delays players from getting to the good stuff!

What if I don’t have a website of my own?

Many people send a link to sites like Kongregate, or Newgrounds, and that’s fine. If, however, you simply send us a link to rapidshare, or a similar sharing service please include a description of your game. If the player doesn’t know the goal or how to play, it’ll be hard for you to get good feedback.

Oops, I missed the monthly deadline. Now what?

If you complete your game after the deadline, please post your game in the comments for the Best-of-the-Net roundup. We’ll try and add it to the list, but it might take some time given the number of people submitting games these days.

Are the EGP rules absolute?

No, but it is highly recommended you try and follow them. Over the years we’ve found that having tight restrictions can result in some really great games!

I have no art/coding/whatever skills – is that an issue?

Making a game is about practice and there are many tools and tutorials around to help you get better. No one cares about the quality of your art if the game is good, and it’ll get better as you work at it.

What about music & sound effects?

If you’re looking to add music and sounds to your game there are great resources for both. On archive.org you can find Open Source Audio, and open source tools like Dr. Peter’s sfxr can be used to create awesome retro sound effects.