Best Game Design at Dev.Play

Category Description and Eligibility 

General Eligibility Criteria:

• Eligibility period: To be eligible for the Dev.Play Awards 2023, a game must be unreleased or must have been released no earlier than October 1^st, 2022. (the “Eligible Start Date”).
• Past winners: Games which have won Dev.Play awards at past editions are not eligible to participate in a category that they have won in the past.
• Independent studios: Every company or an individual that submits a game must be completely independent meaning that they do not have majority control in the company by a video game publisher, they are not a subsidiary of an international video game publisher and their production/game is funded in majority through various independent sources.
• Free participation: Participating at the Dev.Play Awards is completely free of charge, with the only requirement being that every participating team needs to have at least one team member registered for the Dev.Play conference (ticket bought) to be considered during the nominee selection round, and later be present at the conference for any additional questions by the contest jury, as well as present during the Dev.Play Awards Gala.

Jury and judging process:

• The Organizer will set up an international judging panel that will select the finalist nominees and award winners for the categories mentioned in section 2.1.1. RGDA staff and board members are excluded from the jury of the Dev.Play Awards and have no input in the judging process.
• During the judging process, each jury member will decide on their own a shortlist of three titles for each category. Then, all jury members will meet and decide together on a winner for each category. In certain situations (such as a very close call between two titles), the jury may decide to appoint a Runner-Up for a category.