The 2009 DIG London Games Competition returns this year and builds upon the success of last year’s competition. This year, the competition has been expanded and revamped to allow entries developed independently by aspiring artists, programmers, and sound designers to be integrated into functional games at the close of the competition to both more closely emulate the work environment in the games industry and to allow this talent to be more readily and impressively showcased.
As mentioned above, the 2009 competition will seek entries in the areas of:
- Game art
- Game programming, and
- Game sound design
Entrants to the competition will be supplied with preproduction materials that allow them to ply their own craft with the knowledge that their entries will be suitable for use in a final integrated game, provided that they follow specifications, of course.
The game theme in the 2009 competition is also both a creative and modular one, in which players piece together a collection of building blocks with well-defined behaviours in order to solve a particular problem at hand. The role of entrants to the competition then is to define the look-and-feel of these building blocks, code their behaviour, and determine how they should sound in the game world.
Entrants pre-register for the competition stream(s) in which they want to complete at the DIG London website (http://www.diglondon.ca). On the opening day for the competition, entrants are expected to return to the site and download competition specifications and materials. Entrants must complete their work within the time frame allocated, and submit their entries online using instructions provided on the opening day.
Art Competition
In the art competition, entrants will be creating a small number of 3D assets (objects, background materials, and so on) according to design specifications using the tools of their choice, provided that their work can be exported to industry-standard formats. As a reference, entrants will be provided with game design documentation detailing what is required of their work, as well as placeholder art that can be used as a basis of comparison. Furthermore, entrants will be provided with a reference implementation of the game that they can use to assess how their work will appear in the final game once they are done.
Programming Competition
In the programming competition, entrants will be developing code for the game, implementing the behaviours of the various gameplay elements within the game. Entrants will be provided with the same game design documentation as the artists to guide their development efforts, and will be given placeholder art and sounds to ensure that their code functions according to specifications. Programmers will also be given reference engine code that can be used within their entries so that they do not need to write their own 3D renderer, sound engine, and so on. Programs must be written for the Windows platform, and it is best for programs to be written in C++, as this tends to be the language of choice in the industry. Other languages may also be permitted, depending on final competition guidelines. Please see below to obtain updates and further information.
Sound Competition
In the sound competition, entrants will be creating the sound effects and, optionally, music for the game, producing several pieces in total. As above, entrants will be provided with game design documentation as a reference, as well as a reference implementation of the game that can be used for assessing how well their work fits within the game. This time, entrants will also be provided with selected submissions from the art competition to enable them to match their sound with the look-and-feel of the game. Entrants are permitted to use any tools at their disposal, provided that they can submit their work in industry-standard formats.
For Further Information
Please visit the DIG London website at http://www.diglondon.ca. More information will be made available throughout the summer leading up to the competition. Alternatively you can contact Larry MacKinnon at lmackinnon@ledc.com for further details and to sign up to DIG London mailing lists to be automatically notified when updates and further details are available.
Just got an update from Larry who is representing DIG London at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival. Here’s what he had to say:
Julian Spillane is the co-founder and CEO of game development company 
It seems like anyone and everyone has a Twitter account these days, including some of the world’s top game development companies and executives.
DIG London's Blog 