Rules & Regulations

The Game Developers Choice Awards competition (the “Contest”) is being sponsored by Informa (the “Sponsor”) in connection with the Game Developers Conference (GDC) to be held March 17 - March 21, 2025, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California (the “Conference”). Each person or entity who enters the Contest (each, an “Entrant”) agrees to abide by the terms of these Official Rules and by the decisions of the Sponsor and its judges, which are final and binding on all matters pertaining to the Contest.

HOW TO ENTER:

Nominations and winner selections for the Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCA) are exclusively made by the International Choice Awards Network (ICAN). ICAN members are dedicated to celebrating the innovation and creativity of the game development industry by participating in (3) rounds of voting detailed below.

All Entrants will have some of their submission information listed on the GDCA website after the Entry Deadline has passed, in the month of January 2025. The information listed will include the game title, creator, school name (if applicable), an image from the game, a link to the game website, the description of the game, and a video link.

Any video game which was released, and made publicly available to consumers, during the year 2024, irrespective of platform or delivery medium, is eligible for nomination.

Upgrades, expansions and mission packs are not eligible.

Reference the following resources for an overview of 2024 game releases (these resources are provided as reference aids only, and may not be exhaustive):

• MobyGames: Games released in 2024 browser
• Wikipedia: 2024 in Video Games
• Metacritic: 2024's best-reviewed games

It is not necessary for ICAN members to make a nomination in each category. A nomination for the same game across multiple categories is allowed. ICAN members cannot nominate the same game in the same category more than once or nominate a game that they are personally involved with - any duplicate submissions will be ignored.

All physical entry materials become the property of the Sponsor and will not be returned (no IP rights are affected).

ICAN MEMBER ELIGIBILITY:

The International Choice Awards Network (ICAN) is an invitation-only group comprised of leading game creators from all parts of the video game industry. ICAN members are asked to recuse themselves from nominating and/or voting on any games that they are personally involved with.

Each year, they participate in three (3) rounds of voting.

• Nomination Vote 1: Recommend up to three (3) individuals per category for the GDCA Special Awards, such as the Ambassador Award, Pioneer Award, and Lifetime Achievement Award.
• Nomination Vote 2: Nominate titles for all GDCA Category Awards. You can recommend up to three (3) game titles per award category
• Category Vote: Cast your ballot for the winning title in each category for the Choice Awards. Vote anywhere between 0 and 5 for each of the finalists, and each vote will count once.

If you are interested in joining ICAN or if you have any questions, please reach out to Stephanie Couch at [email protected].

FINALIST SELECTION PROCESS/NOTIFICATION:

Once the ICAN nomination period closes, the GDC Awards Committee will review the results in order to help select the finalists. The finalists of the Main Category Awards are then voted on by the final voting body, which is made up of the ICAN Committee and GDC Awards Committee.

The ICAN nominating period will nominate finalists for all main and individual categories except the Audience Award and the Game of the Year:

• Game of the Year: This category is open to all games released during the previous calendar year and are nominated by the ICAN, taking into account the overall quality, impressiveness, and enjoyability of the game.
• Audience Award: Nominees will be selected from the full list of finalist games from every main category through a vote open to all GDC attendees and members of the public.
• Best Audio: Finalists will be recognized for the overall excellence of audio in a game - including, but not limited to, sound effects, musical composition, sound design, and orchestration.
• Best Design: Finalists will be recognized for the overall excellence of design in a game - including, but not limited to, gameplay mechanics, playability, play balance, and level design.
• Best Debut: The Best Debut Award recognizes finalists from any development studio that released its first publicly available title that year.
• Innovation Award: Finalists will be recognized for a game that advances the state of game development as a medium and pushes the boundaries of games as an expressive art.
• Best Narrative: Finalists will be recognized for the overall excellence of storytelling in a game - including, but not limited to, scenario, plot construction, story, and dialogue.
• Social Impact Award: Finalists will be recognized for a game that advances equality, justice, intersectionality, and/or sustainability, and works to positively impact the lives of its players in a meaningful way.
• Best Technology: Finalists will be recognized for the overall excellence of technical execution in a game - including, but not limited to, graphics programming, artificial intelligence, networking, and physics.
• Best Visual Art: Finalists will be recognized for the overall excellence of visual art in a game - including, but not limited to, art direction, animation, modeling, character design, and texture creation.
• Lifetime Achievement Award: Recognizes the career and achievements of an individual who has made an indelible impact on the craft of game development and video games as a whole.
• Pioneer Award: Celebrates an individual who has developed a breakthrough technology, game concept, game design, or who has broken through social barriers at a crucial juncture in video game history.
• Ambassador Award: Honors an individual who have helped the game industry advance to a better place, either through facilitating a better game community from within, or by reaching outside the industry to be an advocate for video games with the aim of furthering game making as a medium.

In or around the beginning January 2025, the Sponsor will notify each Entrant that the Entrant’s Entered Game was determined to be a Finalist Game (each such Entrant, a “Finalist”).

WINNER SELECTION PROCESS:

The ICAN and awards Committee will vote for the winners in each main category except for the Audience Award between approximately November 2024 and December 2024.

The Finalist Game with the most votes in each Category is the “Winning Game” for that Category. In addition, members of the public and prospective Conference attendees (the "Public Voter") will select their favorite Finalist Game as a Winning Game in an additional Category called the Audience Award via online voting that is open to the public.

All Winning Games will be announced at the Conference on March 19, 2025.

Individual award winners will be selected by the GDC Awards Committee.

RESTRICTIONS/ELIGIBILITY:

The Contest is open only to business entities and to individuals who are 18 years or older, in each case who have access to the Internet on or before August 21, 2024.

Please note the the Organizer has restricted business with the following countries and territories: Afghanistan, Belarus, Cuba, Iran, Libya, Myanmar (Burma), North Korea, Russia, Russian occupied territories of Ukraine (Crimea, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia), Syria, and Venezuela. Please contact Event Producer Stephanie Couch if you have questions.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

Individuals under the age of 18 years must provide evidence of parent or legal guardian consent satisfactory to Sponsor. Sponsor, its parents, subsidiaries, and affiliates, and its advertising, promotion, and production agencies, as well as employees of any of the foregoing, members of such employees' immediate families (including spouse, parents, siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, step-children, step-parents and in-laws), and persons with whom such employees are domiciled, are not eligible.

RELEASE:

By entering the Contest, each Entrant releases and holds harmless Sponsor, its parents, subsidiaries, and affiliates, and each of their respective officers, directors, agents, and employees from any and all responsibility or liability arising out of or relating to: (i) any personal injury, death, property (including computer) damage, or other loss or claim of any kind arising from or in connection with any violation of these Official Rules; the Contest, the Conference or any Entered Game; the acceptance, possession, or use of any prize; or any travel required by the Contest; (ii) any entry or other materials that have been tampered with, that are misdirected, incomplete, incorrect, non-conforming, corrupt, lost, late, or ineligible, or, with respect to mail-in entries or materials, that are sent postage due; and (iii) computer, telephone, cable, satellite, network, hardware, software, or other technical malfunctions or failures; garbled or jumbled transmissions; Internet or website inaccessibility or delays; printing or typographical errors in any Contest or Conference materials; or any other technical or human errors occurring in connection with the Contest or Conference.

By entering the Contest, each Entrant consents to the use of the Entrant's name, photograph and likeness (if an individual), logo (if any), state of residence, and Entered Game for advertising, promotion, marketing, and administration of the Contest and Conference without additional compensation, to the extent permitted by law. Each entrant further agrees that Sponsor may use any and all information collected through the Contest, including the Entrant's name and contact information, for marketing or other purposes whether or not related to the Contest, to the extent permitted by law and Sponsor's privacy policy, which may be found on the Contest Website.

REPRESENTATIONS :

By entering the Contest, each individual submitting entry materials (including an Entered Game) represents and warrants to Sponsor that:

• such individual either is the Entrant (if the Entrant is an individual) or is a fully authorized representative of the Entrant (if the Entrant is a business entity);
• the Entrant and the Entered Game fully comply with all eligibility requirements and all other provisions of these Official Rules;
• in preparing the Entered Game and entering and participating in the Contest and the Conference, the Entrant has complied and will comply in all respects with all applicable laws, regulations, and rules and has not violated nor will violate any agreement or understanding by which it is bound, including any confidentiality, employment, consulting, intellectual property assignment, or license agreement;
• the Entered Game consists entirely of Entrant's own original work or of work to which Entrant has all necessary rights; and
• neither the Entered Game nor the duplication, use, display, performance, or distribution of the Entered Game will infringe or misappropriate any intellectual property or other proprietary rights of any person or entity.

TERMINATION :

Sponsor reserves the right to cancel, terminate, modify, or suspend the Contest in its sole and absolute discretion if the Contest becomes technically corrupted or is not capable of being run as planned, including infections by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures or any other causes beyond the control of the Sponsor that corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of the Contest. In such event, Sponsor will post notice at the Conference and on the Contest Website and will implement an alternate means for awarding all prizes.

MISCELLANEOUS :

If any part of these Official Rules is held by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, illegal, or otherwise unenforceable, such part will be deemed modified or eliminated to the extent necessary, in the court's opinion, to make it enforceable while preserving the original intent of the Sponsor, and the remaining parts of these Official Rules will remain in full force and effect. The Contest will be governed by, and these Official Rules will be interpreted by, and enforced in accordance with, the laws of the State of California and applicable United States federal law, without regard to any conflicts of laws principles. The Contest is void where prohibited by law. Any dispute arising out of or relating to these Official Rules, the Contest, the Conference, or any prize must be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in San Francisco, California, and Sponsor and each Entrant irrevocably waive any objection to the venue and jurisdiction thereof.

As part of your entry, Informa may contact you via email regarding the GDC Play service for independent game creators taking place during Game Developers Conference.

WINNERS' LIST:

For the name of the Winners, which will be available after March 19, 2025, check the Contest Website.