First create an account by clicking "Create Account" button at the top of the page. Then go to your Dashboard and your Team. After that you can submit your Game from the Dashboard.

You can also watch quick (90 seconds) instruction video here: How to Join the Championship?

Every game has to have a Team to be able to be submitted. Team, in the context of GDWC, means the public entity behind the game. This can be a development team or studio, a group of game jam developers who made a game together, a group of friends or colleagues,or a solo developer.

Solo developers can participate alone. You just need to create your one-person Team for your game. Every game has to have a Team tobe able to be submitted.

We reserve the right to refuse an application.

No, your game can be in any phase of development. The only requirement is that you will need to have a playable build or prototype. You are free to update/edit your submission until the submission deadline.

We don't currently accept physical games to the competition due to the logistical challenges they present.
We'll change this once we can figure out a good way to handle logistics for physical games.

Yes. Games that are still in development can be submitted for the GDWC. This includes games clearly in any in-development phase like Early Access, Soft Launch, Open Beta, Closed Beta, Open Alpha, Closed Alpha, Open Pre-Alpha, Closed Pre-Alpha, etc., and have not reached an official full release status.

Yes. You just need to ensure your team(s) all include you in them when submitting their games.

There are several communities of game developers on services such as Facebook and Reddit. You may also be able to find a local IGDA chapter or university with game development in it.

We also have a Discord Server for all GDWC participants and everyone interested in games and game development. It's a great place to network with other developers. Join our Discord server here.

Yes, we have a Discord server. Join our Discord server here.

Yes. You can submit as many games into the contest as you like. To do so, follow the instructions in the entry submission platform after registering.

If you have a technical or submission issue, please contact our support at support@thegdwc.com. For other inquiries, you can reach us via email at contact@thegdwc.com.

You can also find us in many social medias. Links to our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Youtube can be found at the bottom of the page. You can also find us in the GDWC Community Discord. Join our Discord server here.

Yes! Links to our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Youtube, and Discord can be found at the bottom of the page. Link to our Developer Discord is also on your profile page.

For support in technical issues, contact us at support@thegdwc.com.

Contact our support at support@thegdwc.com as soon as possible from the same email address you used to register your account.

No. As mods generally require another game to run, we don't currently accept them into the competition.

No. As DLC and Expansion Packs generally require another game to run, we don't currently accept them into the competition.

No. Due to the potentially challenging legal nature of Fan Games and the materials used in them, we've ruled Fan Games out from the competition.

Please check out the current championship rules here for latest information.

Please check out the current championship rules here for latest information.

Please email us at contact@thegdwc.com

Please contact us at contact@thegdwc.com

The earlier in the Championship period you submit your game, the more engagement and votes, and more exposure it can gather. It also has a better chance to be featured in our own channels.You can update your submission throughout all the way until the end of the submission period.

Yes you can.

Keys are asked beforehand for checking the games and for logistical reasons. There's hundreds of games to check each year and a limited time to do this, so asking for keys in that short time frame would risk many developers missing the key request and us having to pass multiple games simply due to the game not being available at the right moment.

We have thegdwc.com, thegdwc.net, and thegdwc.fi domains. The .net and .fi domains redirect to thegdwc.com.

Emails coming from thegdwc.net are from us. Just make sure that it indeed is from thegdwc.net and that the sender has not been spoofed.

Yes. You can edit your game submission until the submission period for the season ends. After that, the submissions and edits are locked until next Season opens.

No. All edits and game submissions are locked after the submission deadline. The lock will be lifted for the new Season.

Unless otherwise stated all deadlines are always for the Finnish time zone. This means Eastern European Time (EET) during Winter and Eastern European Summer Time (EEST) during Summer. EET is same as UTC+2 and EEST is the same as UTC+3.

It's usually best to submit your game as early as you can to ensure that you're not missing the Championship. Even if you're still actively working on your game and things are changing, you can always edit your submission and update things until the deadline.

The keys are for judges and for the GDWC team to use during the judging process.

You must provide two (2) keys for GDWC team. These must be included in the initial submission before the submission deadline. Our keys are used for testing the game during the judging process. We also use our keys for streaming and other content creation to promote the games.

You must provide minimum of twenty (20) keys for the jury members to ensure that all judges have access to the game. These are only required if your game makes it into the Finalist round of Judging. You can add these to the initial submission or you can add this during the Finalist Judging phase.
Sometimes we may request additional keys due to previously provided keys not working on if there's more judges than keys.

These are our default categories. All submitted games are automatically in consideration for all of these categories. We will then automatically place games into all categories where they match the rules based on provided details such as game platforms, release date, monetization, team size etc.

All submitted games are automatically in consideration for all our default categories: Indie, Studio, Hobby, Mobile
We will then automatically place games into all categories where they match the rules based on provided details such as game platforms, release date, monetization, team size etc.

Due to the very large amount of submitted games (2000+ past two seasons), we can't guarantee that all submitted games will be playtested.