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SUBMISSION CRITERIA & ELIGIBILITY

All eligible submissions must first meet the following basic criteria for consideration:

    RELEASE DATE: 

    • The game's launch date must fall between January 1, 2021 and March 31, 2022.
    • A game cannot be submitted to the G4C Awards more than once (games that have been submitted to previous G4C Awards will not be considered for competition).

    SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 

    • The extended deadline for submissions is February 13, 2022 @ 11:59 PM ET.

    SOCIAL IMPACT THEME: 

    • All games must fall within the broad confines of being a ‘game for change', addressing real-world challenges, improving people's lives, driving social change, serving as critical tools in humanitarian and educational efforts, inspiring learning, encouraging empathy, and/or making a difference.

    DIGITAL FORMAT: 

    • All submissions must be in a digital format and be fully playable.
    • Digital projects with installations that are no longer running, such as alternate reality games (ARGs) or live-action games, must include documentation of the game in a digital file format.
    • We cannot consider board, card, or other games that do not have digital components
    • Currently we are unable to accomodate receiving digital games with physical components, but we will still accept your submission! If your game uses physical materials, or requires custom hardware or wearables, we will ask that you record and upload a short video demo of your game to share with the judges.

    GAME ACCESS:

    • To review your submission, we will require 15 fully playable versions of your digital game for jurors, whether it be through a link to your website, Dropbox, download codes, etc.

    CATEGORY REQUIREMENTS

    • In addition to the general G4C Awards eligibility criteria, certain categories may have specific submission requirements. See the full list of award categories here for details.

    JURY PROCESS

    The G4C Awards process incorporates three rounds of jury review, which take place between March-May 2022. Each submission is evaluated by panels of jurors both quantitatively and qualitatively using the Award Categories rubrics, available here. 

    Jurors include leading experts from a diverse fields, including game design/development, technology, media, learning, social impact and more. Nominees and finalists are not selected by staff or board members of Games for Change, and are exclusively determined by the annual G4C Awards Jury.

    In addition to honoring submitted games, Games for Change also offers special recognitions to projects, companies, organizations, and people in the games industry. These additional awards are also honored during the annual G4C Awards Ceremony during the Festival.