FAQ

When is a project considered to be a work-in-progress?

A work-in-progress game is not available to the public as a finished product but remains under development. Our definition includes prototypes, vertical slices, pre-alphas, alphas, betas, and Early Access titles.

If your game is publicly available as a purchase or a free download, you must clearly state that this is not a final product on the game’s download page for the game to be considered a work-in-progress (e.g. Early Access, Open Playtest, etc)

To be eligible for Indie Cup, your game must fall under this definition as of the last day of the submission period for the season you are applying to.

Mind that there is no limit to the number of editions a project can join – as long as it remains a work in progress. So you can submit a rough prototype this year, polish it based on the jury feedback, and participate in the next edition with a more advanced version of the game.

Who is considered to be an independent developer?

For our purposes, an independent developer is a person or a small team that is not owned by another company or other major stakeholder, does not have the backing of a large publisher, and can exercise total creative and commercial control over their project.

That said, the world of indie games is large, diverse, and often complicated. If you’re not sure you fit this description but still want to apply, please get in touch.

Is there a restriction on the size of the applying team?

Not a specific one. We can reject your application if the size of your team is much larger than that of other participants. Most projects participating in Indie Cup are made by teams smaller than 20 developers.

What’s with the region restrictions?

Each Indie Cup edition focuses on a country (or a group of countries), so we can organically maintain a limited number of projects at the festival. This way we can ensure that more games are reviewed and covered. This approach also gives us a chance to connect with local associations and partners.

We also don’t enforce the restriction that hard. For the project to be eligible, any person working full-time on your team must be a citizen or a permanent resident of the edition’s region.

(The only restriction that we enforce very hard: teams including residents of russia and/or Belarus, as well as teams mostly comprised by citizens of these countries, are barred from participating in Indie Cup.)

We’re regularly revising the list of countries eligible for Indie Cup as we’re launching new seasons. If your country isn’t on the list and you feel like it should be, send us an email.

Do Indie Cup jurors play every game accepted for the festival?

No. The jurying is broken down into two rounds. In the first round, the jury evaluates only the submitted gameplay footage. In the second round, the jurors must play all games that were nominated during the first round.

That said, we always provide jurors with access to all submitted projects, so they can play and review any game they liked.

(BTW this is why submitting a good gameplay video is so important.)

What is required of the gameplay video?

Your gameplay video is crucial because it represents your project to the jurors during the first round of the contest. If they like it, they’ll pick your game for the second round – and only in that round they will actually play it. Here are some tips on how to prepare a video our jurors will enjoy:

• The video’s main point is to convey how your game feels and what’s it like to play it.
• So the best approach is to keep it simple: the best video is just a screen recording of you or your team playing your game at least for 5 minutes (no upper limit, but mind that the jurors won’t have time to watch really long videos).
• We don’t allow videos made by content creators. Our jurors often stream the jurying process, and streaming another person’s content could lead to copyright problems.
• We allow minor editing and developer voiceover – for example, to liven up the video or to emphasize the crucial mechanics. But please don’t turn it into a flashy Hollywood action trailer with hundreds of jump-cuts: the jurors won’t be able to grasp anything from it.
• The video should be uploaded to YouTube and YouTube only. The jury views the games through a special inbox on our website. If you provide a link to any other video hosting platform, the inbox won’t parse it correctly, so your video will be unavailable, and the jurors won’t see it.
• If you’re worried about privacy matters, you can make the video unlisted on YouTube (so it won’t appear in the search results). But ensure it’s not private – or, again, the jurors won’t see it.

Is the gameplay video or build made public?

Not without your permission. You can allow sharing your gameplay footage, for example, if you want content creators on our jury panel to showcase your project. As for the build, there is a Public Demo field in the application form, but it is not mandatory.

Can I edit my application after it’s submitted?

Yup. We allow updating your application until the end of the season.

What should I do after I submit my application?

Your game will go through a preliminary screening round. After screening, it may get into Round I. The jury may nominate it for Round II — in this case, you will have to upload a playable build of your game (there will be a specific time frame for that).

Do all submitted games get into Indie Cup?

Yes and no. After the submission window is closed, we browse through the projects and compile the long lists for each category. All long-listed projects are ‘in competition’ proper: the jurors will look at them and cast their votes.

If your project didn’t get through the preliminary screening, don’t despair – it still will be featured in our showcase. There, it will be visible to our jurors, partners, and any people browsing through our website.

I don’t get your categories’ system. Can you explain it one more time?

Sure thing. Indie Cup has three kinds of categories:

• Early Consideration category is open only to prototypes, pre-alphas and alphas, and those vertical slices that are rather early in development.
• Official Selection categories are open to any game fulfilling the general eligibility requirements, except for the early-in-development games as defined above.
• Depending on our sponsors for a particular edition, there may be some Special Selection categories (or there may be none). The conditions of these categories are entirely up to the sponsors – more information on that may be on our homepage (or not).

How are the categories assigned?

All longlisted projects with the Development Progress slider in the application set to less than 50% in the application form automatically enter the Early Consideration category.

For the Official Selection categories, we assign categories to longlisted submissions before the start of the first jurying round based on the criteria of each category. Your game will enter all categories where it is eligible.

Do Indie Cup jurors play every game accepted for the festival?

No. The jurying is broken down into two rounds. In the first round, the jury evaluates only the submitted gameplay footage. In the second round, the jurors must play all games that were nominated during the first round.

(BTW this is why submitting a good gameplay video is so important.)

Does everyone get written jury feedback?

No, sorry. Writing feedback for dozens of games would be a full-time job.

However, if your game qualifies as a season nominee, you are guaranteed to receive written feedback from the jurors in the corresponding category. We also provide an option for the jurors to give feedback on any other game on the list, but it is up to the jurors to do that.

Who gets to enter Indie Cup Celebration and other Indie Cup events?

Special events (like the Indie Cup Celebration sale on Steam) are open to projects that participated in Indie Cup. We select games based on jury ratings and our curation.

Do I have to pay to participate in Indie Cup events?

Nope. All Indie Cup events are 100% free for developers.

So how do you make money?

We earn money by working with sponsors & partners. Sponsors might get general data about Indie Cup participants. However, we do not share personal information with third parties.

(Also, good job for asking. It’s an important question!)