Foreword

In an ideal world, we would like to accept all the entries of everyone who has registered to exhibit for the Indie Games Expo at MAGWest.  Because we want to support all indie game developers, including those who are starting out or just beginning in their game dev journey, and we don't like turning people away.

Unfortunately, we have limited space, time, resources, and staff.  We receive a lot of entries, so we would need to choose.  If your game is not selected, it just means that the competition is really strong for the year, so don’t take it to mean that your game wasn’t good enough, and we encourage you to try again next year.  Here are some tips on what to do to increase your chances of getting accepted to MAGWest Indie Games Expo.  Good luck!

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Help Us Help You

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Caption: "Thank you for helping us help you help us all."

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• Do things that would make it easier for us to evaluate your game, by providing as much information to us as possible.
  • In your submission, please provide these as much as possible:
    • Game demo (MOST HELPFUL ASPECT)
      • If your game is for a unique platform:
        • If you can cross compile to another platform (Mac, Windows, web) or somehow package it with an emulator for one of those more common platforms, that is preferred as it will help the judges to be able to effectively review your game. If your only option is to submit a native file, we'll do our best to find a judge that has the appropriate hardware.
      • If your game is using Apple TestFlight or a similar beta service:
        • If your service offers a link, include that. If an email is required, you can supply several email addresses and passwords from a domain that you control such as your website. These addresses should be temporary, of course.
      • If your game had been played by one of the MAGWest Indie Games Expo staff, and you have received official confirmation from our staff, then this is counted as us getting the demo.
    • Game trailer that includes at least 30 seconds of uninterrupted gameplay.
      • If your game has multiple "modes" or "gameplay styles" you are welcome to "cut video" after 30 continuous seconds to show another aspect of your gameplay. If there is special information you want to convey about your game (e.g., a peripheral utilized), be sure to include information about it in the video or the judges will not be aware.
  • In the submission, please provide information about the hardware that you will bring:
    • So that we can know how much electricity to allocate
      • It is more ideal to know the wattage that your hardware consumes, especially for larger hardware (including PCs, arcade cabinets, large TVs, etc).
        • The most ideal way would be to look at the power supply unit of each PC to tell us how much watts they take.
        • For PCs, if the specs on the power supply unit is not available for you, please try one of the methods in these links:
          • https://www.newegg.com/tools/power-supply-calculator
          • https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch002301.htm#utility
          • https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch002301.htm#online
        • Once again, please be considerate of the other exhibitors, and don’t bring hardware that needs to consume a lot of electricity to operate properly, like plasma TVs.
    • So that we can know how much space to allocate
      • If you are bringing booth decorations that are tall, or large, or could potentially need to stand outside a table:
        • Please include measurements of anything that you would bring.
        • Please include a photo of your setup, if applicable, aside from the measurements. </aside>

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Aside from that, please follow these guidelines:

• Table Of Contents

Guidelines

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1. Must adhere to the MAGWest Code Of Conduct - https://www.magwest.org/code-of-conduct

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2. Must adhere to MAGWest’s Mission And Core Values

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3. Must align with the Goals Of MAGWest Indie Games Expo

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4. The exhibitors, as much as possible, are preferred to be people who we can be happy and proud to be part of our community, and safe to be around.

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5. Our stance on AI-generated images or assets, or LLM-generated writing

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