OFFICIAL Publish Your GameMaker Game To GXC - $30K Of Prizes To Be Won!

rmanthorp

GameMaker Staff
Admin
GameMaker Dev.
1636643724417.png
Hi GameMakers,

GXC, the new platform for GameMaker games, launched last week. Already, over 300 games have been uploaded to GXC. The current Challenge of the Week has over 15,000 high scores registered - and this is only the beginning!

NOVEMBER GXC UPLOAD PRIZES

We're continuing to run competitions for games uploaded to GXC. Until the end of of November any new games uploaded to GXC are eligible to win one of six $5,000 prizes from our $30K November Prize Pool. When November ends our team will review all the games uploaded and select six that stand out. Head on over to DevCloud and start uploading your games. You can also follow this video guide on how to upload. Once your game is uploaded let us know on social media.

Read the full Terms & Conditions here. Best of luck!


CHALLENGES
Challenges are really driving hype on GXC and with a great challenge, your game may be selected for the next Challenge of the Week! Check out this quick video about Challenges on GXC:

 

Sad

Member
Wishing luck for all the participants :)

Let see if I can actually spin up something fun for GXC by the end of this month.
 

Mr Magnus

Viking King
Christ, how many games do you think I have just lying around? Am I going to have to dig up "another flea-ting day" from the deepest grave of my jam library?

Joke aside, I very much enjoy this method of getting creators on to the platform. More good games get uploaded to the service and creators get a (slim) chance of winning some money.
 

rIKmAN

Member
With all these cash prizes regularly floating around it's certainly becoming a very tempting way to be sidetracked!

I hope this kind of community interaction/engagement becomes the norm and doesn't just stop when targets are hit, it's really good to see. đź‘Ť
 
Hmm, as much as I wish I could use my second game I already uploaded I'd rather have the rules being clear cut and dry instead of this:
  • Games that have previously been published on GXC are not eligible to be part of this contest, unless they have been substantially modified (e.g. upgraded from a limited beta to a full game with twice the amount of content)
For example, even if I fixed all the bugs and added more mechanics and about 12 more levels - which would all in all not be ~that much work - it would, at least to me, clearly double the games content, but I don't know whether the judges see it the same way. Maybe it's eligible - maybe not. That ambiguity just never feels good to me. Just my two cents.
 

peardox

Member
Hmm, as much as I wish I could use my second game I already uploaded I'd rather have the rules being clear cut and dry instead of this:
  • Games that have previously been published on GXC are not eligible to be part of this contest, unless they have been substantially modified (e.g. upgraded from a limited beta to a full game with twice the amount of content)
For example, even if I fixed all the bugs and added more mechanics and about 12 more levels - which would all in all not be ~that much work - it would, at least to me, clearly double the games content, but I don't know whether the judges see it the same way. Maybe it's eligible - maybe not. That ambiguity just never feels good to me. Just my two cents.
Do a new version with only the additional levels then release "Greatest Gave Ever 2" - The next levels...:)
 

derboo

Member
OK I tried it: https://gxc.gg/games/bbee45e6-547b-474f-bd88-67811b2ca2b3

The streamlined publishing process is pretty neat, tempted to try out the Challenges thing some time.

EDIT: Btw is it intentional that I can rate my own game? I feel like the "highest rating" sort puts out a lot of games that are only rated by their creators (including mine now, accidentally).
 
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rmanthorp

GameMaker Staff
Admin
GameMaker Dev.
Hmm, as much as I wish I could use my second game I already uploaded I'd rather have the rules being clear cut and dry instead of this:
  • Games that have previously been published on GXC are not eligible to be part of this contest, unless they have been substantially modified (e.g. upgraded from a limited beta to a full game with twice the amount of content)
For example, even if I fixed all the bugs and added more mechanics and about 12 more levels - which would all in all not be ~that much work - it would, at least to me, clearly double the games content, but I don't know whether the judges see it the same way. Maybe it's eligible - maybe not. That ambiguity just never feels good to me. Just my two cents.
This would be eligible!
 

Mehdi

Member
hi all.
I've made a game in GMS 1.4 a couple years ago, and now I imported it into GMS 2.3.6 to try exporting it to Opera GX. However when uploading, it stops progressing any further at around %20. What could be the problem of my game?
(btw it works quite correctly when I play it offline in Window & Opera GX mode)
 

Dr. Wolf

Member
Nice to see support for the community continuing!

Will there ever be a rotation of the judging categories though? Would be nice to see different genres/design priorities get a turn in the spotlight.

For example, right now, an artsy puzzle platformer with enemies can currently enter "best action", "best platformer", "best puzzle", "best art direction", "best level design", and the two universal categories ("best soundtrack" and "most engaging"), whereas a gameplay-focused 4x could only enter the universal categories, and genres that are traditionally silent, like interactive fiction, could only do "most engaging". But if you had months with different genre categories, and some of the other categories swapped around-- for example, "best balance," "most replayable", "best writing", "best world generation", etc.-- then different kinds of games could get a chance to shine.
 

peardox

Member
4. CONTEST PERIOD

The Contest begins at the start of every calendar month at 12:01 AM Central European Time (“CET”)
This implies that this is a recurring compo with no current end date
 

Mr Magnus

Viking King
This implies that this is a recurring compo with no current end date
I don't find that suprising. They *really* want this platform to succeed from the looks of it. Incentivizing creators to keep adding games to the platform by dangling a golden contest carrot is a decent way to lure in quality entries.
 

peardox

Member
Looking at the somewhat variable quality of the entries they've had so far this sort of reminds me of a compo Blackberry (RIP) ran back in 2010 where they offered $100 for every app submitted with a limit of 20 entries per account.

Needless to say a load of people gamed the system creating 20 variations on a theme. One guy I know took this to the extreme and submitted 600 entries over 30 accounts (I only did four). Basically he released 600 books from Gutenberg in App form...

I bet the people who (re-)released for their best games for last month's 1k prize are kicking themselves...

Personally I did start a project for last month but as I'm new to GMS never got it finished (there's a bit of a learning curve coming in from other languages). I've picked that project back up now I'm over the initial "How GMS works" vs "How I work" with no rush to finish just to win a prize now as it looks like I can get it to a proper state and enter when I decide its ready.

One other thought is that there's the opportunity for truly creative indies to "churn out" (I'll prob get flak over that phrasing) a game every few months for a reasonable chance of Opera ending up funding a large proportion of the dev time without restriction as there's nothing stopping you also releasing on other platforms as well (although I guess you'd release on GXC first for the possible prize, maybe this is Yoyo/Opera's cunning plan - get the next Among Us first...).
 

Mightyjor

Member
Just want to confirm, we don't actually need to do anything other than publish the game on GXC to be entered into the competition right?

And if we want to be in the running for a game with significant updates, do we need to create a new build page or just update the old one?
 
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gnysek

Member
Piff, you and your mainland time zones. There's still a whole hour to go!
Nope, 11:59 PM CET (23:59 CET) already passed 30 minutes ago :p It would be hour more if this would be GMT ;)

The Contest begins at the start of every calendar month at 12:01 AM Central European Time (“CET”) and ends on the last day of every calendar month at 11:59 PM CET (the “Contest Period”). The Sponsor's computer will be the official clock for the Contest. To win a Prize, all Entries must be received during the Contest Period.
 

peardox

Member
Nope, 11:59 PM CET (23:59 CET) already passed 30 minutes ago :p It would be hour more if this would be GMT ;)
Oh, you're going for the December compo (implied by rules) - me too :)

I just looked at GXC - there's no date sort so you can't tell what's new easily :(
 

Mr Magnus

Viking King
Nope, 11:59 PM CET (23:59 CET) already passed 30 minutes ago :p It would be hour more if this would be GMT ;)
Ah, but that wasn't the statement. The statement was "aaand it's december".

For me it is still the 30th of November. Look!

1638315444883.png

The contest is a different matter entirely, but I am conveniently skirting around that topic.
 

peardox

Member
Wayback Machine list 354 games on 4th Nov and right now there are 395 so there are 41 new games in this compo (bar a few maybe being added 1st - 4th which I doubt)

Therefore if all the games were of exactly the same quality your chance of winning last month is 14.6%

I also note the featured games includes at least one from Yesterday (30th)
 

peardox

Member
Hmm...

The Contest begins at the start of every calendar month at 12:01 AM Central European Time (“CET”) and ends on the last day of every calendar month at 11:59 PM CET (the “Contest Period”). The Sponsor's computer will be the official clock for the Contest. To win a Prize, all Entries must be received during the Contest Period.
Only just spotted this... - they've changed the contest rules. It now gives specific dates whereas before it just said 1st day of month to end of month (with times)
 

gnysek

Member
they've changed the contest rules
That's interesting, as I just copy-paste it from pages opened few hours before end of contest. However, as this is cosmetic change, rules are same, they just gave exact day and month instead of "calendar month".
 

peardox

Member
2:00 AM CET to be precise ;)
The number of games now listed is 396 so you've published but there's absolutely no way to find your game

Trying searching for gnysek produces zero results - less than wonderful discoverability
 

gnysek

Member
less than wonderful discoverability
Cause it's released under my company name, not my username :D

I've just noticed that updating game description causes to update "Last Updated", while game wasn't modified - how jury is approaching this issue?
 
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rmanthorp

GameMaker Staff
Admin
GameMaker Dev.
Submissions cutoff was this morning for us, however we will include games from timezones outside GMT so that everyone has until Dec 1st. Wasn't something the team considered at first. The numbers here a little bit skewed as some games have come and gone. We've got our internal systems to see all new published games in November and it's around 100~ Some very impressive games in there so judging is going to tough! We should hopefully have a winner announcement later this week or next week. Congratulations to everyone who got something uploaded. Really loving how much GXC is showcasing the awesome games being made with GameMaker 🙌
 

gnysek

Member
We've got our internal systems to see all new published games in November
OK, so it's not sorting them by "Last Update" which can be affected by updating game description, good then :) Also, I've seen in other topic, that all updates added before judges checks game are counting in, which is good news too!
 

peardox

Member
@rmanthorp

Can we have a date sort on gxc.gg so we can see recent releases easily
The compo rules changed recently - it originally was worded as an ongoing event but then changed to specific Nov dates. The rules currently still have Nov dates so if there's a Dec one did it start at midnight?
 

Mehdi

Member
Submissions cutoff was this morning for us, however we will include games from timezones outside GMT so that everyone has until Dec 1st. Wasn't something the team considered at first. The numbers here a little bit skewed as some games have come and gone. We've got our internal systems to see all new published games in November and it's around 100~ Some very impressive games in there so judging is going to tough! We should hopefully have a winner announcement later this week or next week. Congratulations to everyone who got something uploaded. Really loving how much GXC is showcasing the awesome games being made with GameMaker 🙌
Sorry does this time extension include countries inside GMT too? I worked hard yesterday but lacked enough time to do finishing tweaks.
 

Mehdi

Member
@milleson
Please answer my question: Does everyone inside or outside GMT still have permission to submit their game??
Anyone else knows?
 

milleson

GameMaker Staff
GameMaker Dev.
@Mehdi majority of GXC events are managed by @rmanthorp and team, I primarily focus on product so can't advice on this I'm afraid. Likely there won't be any response until tomorrow, so I advise to upload and then after getting answer you can decide what to do with the game in GXC.
 

gnysek

Member
Anyone else knows?
From what Ross said, it seems that all games which were submited before 11:59 PM in their timezone will be included, so I believe he meant UTC-12:00 (for sure nothing later than 11:59 UTC on 1st December). However, pushing update cause of bugs was still allowed until Judges would play your game (which might happen at any moment).

I think that rules needs some adjustments, as it's also mentioned, that you should inform about entry using social channels, but it's even not mentioned which, should any hashtag should be used, etc. I've mentioned YYG profile on twitter with info that there's my game for contest, but I'm not sure now that it was needed and required :p
 

Mehdi

Member
From what Ross said, it seems that all games which were submited before 11:59 PM in their timezone will be included, so I believe he meant UTC-12:00 (for sure nothing later than 11:59 UTC on 1st December). However, pushing update cause of bugs was still allowed until Judges would play your game (which might happen at any moment).

I think that rules needs some adjustments, as it's also mentioned, that you should inform about entry using social channels, but it's even not mentioned which, should any hashtag should be used, etc. I've mentioned YYG profile on twitter with info that there's my game for contest, but I'm not sure now that it was needed and required :p
So can I upload my unfinished game and work on it in the course of one - two next days? some graphics are still missing and some puzzles need tweaking.
 

gnysek

Member
some graphics are still missing and some puzzles need tweaking
If they include whole 1st December, then all you wrote should be right. You have only 29 minutes then (as they are using CET clock)! However, remember that there's no place on Earth where there's still 30th November, so that's up to their decision.
 

rmanthorp

GameMaker Staff
Admin
GameMaker Dev.
Thanks.
If I fail to submit, will there be any monthly competion?
Your submission should be included. Feel free to link it here so we can check it's within the judging. RE: Other monthly competitions. We originally intended to run a monthly comp like this each month. However, we think the format isn't quite right and we'd like to use the resources and prizes in a more focused way so stay tuned for similar competitions coming to GXC soon!
 

Mehdi

Member
Your submission should be included. Feel free to link it here so we can check it's within the judging. RE: Other monthly competitions. We originally intended to run a monthly comp like this each month. However, we think the format isn't quite right and we'd like to use the resources and prizes in a more focused way so stay tuned for similar competitions coming to GXC soon!
Sadly, I didnt submit it. Can I have just 24 hours from now to complete it?
 
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