Rules & Guidelines

Read all about the requirements, guidelines, and best practices for making a valid Game Jam entry.

Rules

FOLLOW RULES CAREFULLY Game Jams are fun, but it is also a contest with high stakes. It is therefore very important that you follow the rules. Not doing so will in most cases disqualify your entry and you will be ineligible to earn any prizes, including participation rewards.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Join The Sandbox Creator's Forum to stay updated on Game Jams.

Important Dates

Important Dates

Always check the deadlines stated in the Medium articles for respective Game Jams. The Medium article includes registration times, Game Jam start date, the deadline for submitting your entry, dates for voting, and the date that results are announced. The most important ones for you to remember is the registration deadline and the submission date. Do not forget this, and make sure to check the time for submitting your entry that day as well.

The time will be noted in UTC, so make sure that you convert your time zone to UTC correctly to avoid mistakes.

Submission

Submission

1. Upload your game to the Drafts Gallery in the Game Maker software. You may not update your game after the date and time stated in the Medium article for a particular Game Jam. 2. Submit your entry through the submission form. The form for the respective Game Jams will be linked in the registration email that you receive on Kick-Off day.

PREPARE YOUR SUBMISSION AS YOU CREATE

Read through the submission form before you start working on your game. The form asks for documentation that may take additional time to complete, so do not leave this part for the very last minute.

The Game Maker software is currently in the Alpha stage of development. This means that there are frequent updates. Game Jam entries are always expected to be uploaded to the Drafts Gallery on the same Game Maker version that the Game Jam was launched on.

Game Requirements

There are some overall requirements that your game must meet to constitute a valid entry. Please make sure that all of the below is in order before submitting an entry.

Game Maker Version

Your game must be designed in our Game Maker software using the version stated in the registration email sent to you on the Game Jam Kick-Off date.

Size

Games submitted to our Game Jams must be no larger than 1x1 in size.

Creation Date & Uniqueness

Experiences entered into the Game Jam contests must be created after the starting date of the Game Jam. Submitting a copy of any existing experience does not count as a valid entry.

Playability

Your entry must have elements of gameplay that drive players towards a goal, which may include quests, missions, crowd events, etc.

Asset Requirements

Your entry must contain a minimum of 25 unique assets.

• You may use "Basic Assets" from the Game Maker library.

• You may use Assets that you have created yourself using VoxEdit.

• You may use Assets that you own in your wallet. This could be Assets that you have purchased or won.

• You may use Assets provided by us or included in official templates available in the Game Maker.

• You may NOT use Assets that you have wish listed in The Sandbox Marketplace but do not own. These will appear in your Game Maker library, but are not allowed in a Game Jam entry unless you purchase them.

Gameplay Length

Your game must have enough content to be playable for at least 5 minutes, which should be reflected in your unedited gameplay video sent on the submission form. This does not include quests that send players to collect items all over the map so they spend a large amount of time travelling. ⚠️ Some games may technically not be 5 minutes from start to end, but will instead encourage competitive play that engages the player and motivates them to make several attempts at beating the game. If judges deem that the game is challenging enough to keep players trying or retrying for at least 5 minutes, this will fulfil this requirement as well.

Theme Adherence

All Game Jams will specify a theme that we expect participants to follow. We leave room for interpretations of the provided themes, however, if you stray too far off course, this could impact your final score. In cases where the game is showing no association with the theme whatsoever, this could furthermore cause the game to be disqualified.

Sensitive Content Entries containing elements of any kind of discriminative or overly sexualised nature will be disqualified from the contest. Please also refer to our other Terms & Conditions.

Terms & Conditions

KYC

In order to place in Game Jams, prize winning wallets must be KYC verified. Learn more about getting KYC verification on your account.

Wallet Requirements

You will be asked to provide a crypto wallet in the Game Jam submission form. The wallet address you provide in the form must be connected to an account at The Sandbox. All wallets provided in connection with Game Jams will be checked for flags and KYC status. Some wallets may be flagged due to suspicious activities or other issues that go against The Sandbox's Terms of Use. If your wallet is flagged, you will be ineligible to earn prizes for that Game Jam and any other contest unless your flag is removed.

Make sure that the wallet you submit with can receive SAND tokens and NFTs on the polygon network so you are able to receive your rewards SAND, LAND, and CATALYST rewards.

WALLET SETUP

See our Manage Wallet documentation. It includes how to add the Polygon network and enable SAND (Polygon) token use on your third party wallet.

LAND Prizes

If you won a LAND in a Game Jam, you are expected to complete your Experience Page and publish your game.

MANDATORY

To receive your reward, you must have the Experience page published before the award ceremony.

WARNING

Should you choose to sell your LAND rather than use it to publish your game, you will be ineligible to win LAND prizes for all future Game Jams.

Also, once you receive it you are expected to publish your game on it in the quarter following the Game Jam and keep it live for at least for 3 months. The Sandbox might publish it ourselves if we’d like to use it for an event. In the case you haven’t published your game yet, you will be warned and will have the possibility to refuse being part of the event.

Guidelines & Best Practices

In order to have a valid and high quality Game Jam entry, please review the required and recommended guidelines and resources below for best practices.

Required

Copyright

Do not use copyrighted characters, names, people, logos, and other copyrighted material in your Game Jam entries.

If in doubt whether something will cause copyright issues, look it up. If you can find no clear answer, it is always best to avoid including it.

You may take inspiration from an IP's brand, work, and values.

⚠️ Some Game Jams are done in collaboration with The Sandbox's partners. Some IPs have special requirements and rules, so please read the Medium articles carefully.

Recommended

Guidelines and best practices are there to help you but are not requirements for making a valid Game Jam entry.

Optimisation

Your logic and assets should be optimised for a high quality gameplay experience. While it is not required, it will definitely be noticable when your Experience is tested on multiple devices and may make it a less competitive entry.

See Optimisation for more information.

Testing

Testing your game is essential to its success. It's also helpful to get feedback and have your game tested by other people who do not know the intended game flow to see how players will make different choices and how to prevent those choices from breaking your gameplay.

See Testing for more information to troubleshoot or prevent typical issues.

Resources

VoxEdit Docs and Game Maker Docs include links to all resources by software.

The Welcome page of the Creator Portal also links to the same content.

If you're creating your first Game Jam entry, Learn Creator Basics about The Sandbox ecosystem.