Official Rules & Regulations
United States Games Competition
2015 Season
Version 1.2 September 10 2014
OVERVIEW
The Imagine Cup Games Competition honors the most innovative, impactful, and life-changing software built with Microsoft tools and technology.
If you choose to compete in this Competition, then you agree that your participation is subject to the following:
· The Imagine Cup Official Rules
· The Imagine Cup United States Games Competition Official Rules and Regulations described below.
WHAT ARE THE START AND END DATES?
This Competition starts at 00:01 Greenwich Mean Time (“GMT”) on September 15, 2014 and ends on April 24, 2015 (“Entry Period”). The Entry Period consists of three separate rounds as described below. Each round has unique entry requirements and all required entry deliverables must be received within the designated round in order to be eligible for judging and round advancement.
ROUND / START DATE(all times 00:01 GMT) / END DATE
(all times 23:59 GMT)
Fall Round 1 - Qualifying / September 15, 2014 / November 10, 2014
Fall Round 2 - US Semi-finals / November 11, 2014 / January 6, 2015
Spring Round 1 - Qualifying / November 17, 2014 / January 26, 2015
Spring Round 2 - US Semi-finals / January 27, 2015 / March 24, 2015
Round 3 - US Finals / April 22, 2015 / April 24, 2015
CAN I ENTER?
You are eligible to enter this competition if you meet the following requirements:
· You are at least sixteen years of age or older as of August 30, 2014; and
· You are a legal resident of the fifty United States (including the District of Columbia); and
· You are actively enrolled as a student (including as a graduate or doctoral student) at an accredited educational institution that grants high-school or college/university (or equivalent) degrees (including homeschools) located in the fifty United States (including the District of Columbia) at any time between September 15, 2014 and April 24, 2015; and
· You are NOT an employee or intern of Microsoft Corporation, or an employee of a Microsoft subsidiary, at any time between September 15, 2014 and July 31, 2015; and
· You are NOT involved in any part of the administration and execution of this competition; and
· You are NOT an immediate family (parent, sibling, spouse/domestic partner, child) or household member of a Microsoft employee, an employee of a Microsoft subsidiary.
If you are a Microsoft campus representative (e.g. a Microsoft Student Partner http://student-partners.com) and you meet the eligibility criteria set forth above, you may enter the Competition, but you are prohibited from using Microsoft property or resources, including without limitation: Microsoft networks, hardware tools and technology resources and/or the counsel of Microsoft employees, in connection with the creation or execution of an entry. Very simply, you cannot use any resources which are not also broadly available to all other students. If you have any questions, please contact us.
If you have previously won an Imagine Cup Competition, you are eligible to enter but any entry submitted must be substantially new, unique, and different from anything you’ve submitted before.
This Competition is void outside the geographic area described above and wherever else prohibited by law.
HOW DO I ENTER?
To enter Round 1, visit http://www.imaginecup.com/usa and register as instructed. You can begin submitting your round 1 entry from your Team Profile page on September 15, 2014 for the Fall competition and November 17, 2014 for the Spring Competition.
If you wish to compete in the Fall Competition you must submit your Round 1 entry by November 10, 2014 at 23:59 GMT to qualify for advancement to Round 2 of the Fall Competition. If you wish to compete in the Spring Competition you must submit your Round 1 entry by January 26, 2015 at 23:59 GMT to qualify for advancement to Round 2 of the Spring Competition.
HOW DOES THE COMPETITION WORK?
This Competition offers two opportunities to compete - one in the fall (Fall Competition) and one in the spring (Spring Competition). You can chose which one of the two competitions you want to compete in - or you can compete in both. If you compete in the Fall Competition but are not selected to advance either to Round 2 or Round 3 you can submit again for the Spring Competition.
The Fall and Spring Competitions will each result in the selection of six teams (two from each competition category) who will advance to Round 3 - the US Finals. A total of twelve teams (four from each competition category) will be advanced to Round 3.
Below is an overview of what to expect for each round of the competition.
Round 1 - Qualifying
During Round 1 you must to submit either a:
q One-page vision document; OR
q Three-minute video explaining your project/game idea and how you propose to implement this.
Your document or video must include:
· An introduction to your team and each person’s role
· An explanation of your idea, what problem you are trying to solve or what you are trying to achieve
· An explanation of how you believe you can implement your idea and solve the problem
Round 1 Advancement: All teams who submit the required entry materials listed above are advanced to Round 2.
Round 2 - US Semifinals
During Round 2 you must submit:
q Project Proposal. This should be a Microsoft Word or PDF document no longer than ten pages, or a PowerPoint presentation no longer than twenty slides, which explains your project/game and your team: Who your team is; what your project does; who your project is for; and how you will bring your project to market.
q Games Software usable by the judges.
q Games Software Instructions document explaining how to use your software.
Round 2 Advancement: All Round 2 entries will be evaluated by judges using the scoring criteria given later in these rules. Twelve teams - four from each competition category - will be selected to advance to Round 3. Six of these teams will be selected from the Fall competition and six from the Spring Competition.
Round 3 - US Finals
Teams who advance to round 3 will be brought at Microsoft’s expense to the 2015 US Imagine Cup Finals event where the last round of US Imagine Cup competition occurs.
During Round 3 you must deliver:
q Live Presentation of your project to a panel of judges at the US Finals. This presentation should explain your project/game and your team: Who your team is; what your project does; who your project is for; and how you will bring your project to market.
q Games Software usable by the judges in a hands-on evaluation.
q Games Software Instructions document explaining how to use your software.
The requirements for the one-page vision document, three-minute video, project proposal, live presentation, software, and instructions all appear later in these rules in the “Content and Technical Requirements” section.
Winning Round 3:
The judges at the US Finals event will choose first, second, and third place winners of the US Imagine Cup Competition for each competition category. The first place winning team from each competition category will advance to the Imagine Cup World Semifinals and compete against student teams from around the world for a spot at the Imagine Cup World Finals. One of these three teams will be selected to represent the US at the World Finals in Seattle in July 2015.
See the Official Rules & Regulations for the Games Competition for details on Imagine Cup World Semifinals and World Finals dates and deliverables.
HOW WILL ENTRIES BE JUDGED?
All teams who submit the entry materials required for Round 1 (Qualifying) are advanced to Round 2.
For Round 2 (US Semifinals) and Round 3 (US Finals) each entry will receive a score of 1-100, based on the following criteria. Entries are re-evaluated at each round on the basis of the latest version of the software so your continued development progress may raise your next score.
Criteria / Description / WeightingConcept / · Does the game have a clear target market or audience?
· Does the game present a clear and attractive concept of who you are, what you are doing, and why you are doing it?
· Is the game’s core gameplay understandable and appealing? / 15%
Fun / · Is the game exciting to play?
· Is there good player feedback?
· Is the game appropriately challenging?
· Does the player want to keep coming back for more?
· Does the game deliver appealing innovation in gameplay, storytelling, art direction, or other areas? / 50%
Execution / · Is the game easy to learn and use? Does it have good usability features such as player help, tutorials, and game pause?
· Does the game have a professional degree of production in terms of user interface, art, music, and sound?
· Does the game perform well and respond crisply to input?
· Does the game make effective and appropriate use of the major features of its chosen platform(s)? Were there significant platform features or even platforms the project could have benefitted from but failed to utilize? / 20%
Feasibility / · Does the team have a credible plan for getting their game to market in terms of business model, any required partnerships or licenses, or other factors?
· Does the team have any form of external validation for their game such as customer surveys, focus group tests, an active beta-test program, recommendations from subject-matter experts, or potential investors?
· Does the game have a reasonable chance of success in its appropriate market given the team’s existing plan? / 15%
WHAT ARE THE PRIZES?
Round 2: Teams who advance to Round 3, as well as one Mentor per winning team, will receive a trip to the US Imagine Cup Finals in San Francisco, California in April 2015, where the last round of US Imagine Cup competition occurs. Trip includes round trip coach airfare from a major airport closest to each competitor’s home, standard hotel accommodations, and select meals and activities.
Round 3: At the US Finals, the first place team in the Games Competition will receive the cash prize of $4,000 USD, to be divided equally among each officially registered member of the Team.
CONTENT AND TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS
All Games Projects must be developed using at least one product in the Visual Studio family and must be built to require any one or more of the following platforms:
· Windows
· Windows Phone
· Windows Azure
In addition to one or more of the above, you may also use other Microsoft platforms such as Kinect for Windows SDK, .NET Framework, XNA, Bing maps API, etc., as well as third-party game engines, libraries, and middleware provided you obey their licenses, but none of these are required. As long as your project requires Windows, Windows Phone, or Windows Azure to operate your project meets this requirement.
As a student, you can obtain free tools and software at DreamSpark.
In addition, all entries must meet the following requirements for the One-page Vision Document, Three-minute Video, Project Proposal, Live Presentation, Games Software, and Games Software Instructions:
One-page vision document
This is a Microsoft Word or PDF document no longer than one page, which introduces your team, your project idea or concept, and explains what problem you are trying to solve and how you believe you can implement your idea and solve the problem
Your one-page vision document must meet the following criteria:
1. Your document must be in English.
2. It must be no larger than 50MB.
3. It must be in either DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, or PDF formats.
4. You may compress your document in a ZIP file for submission.
Three-minute video
This is a video recording of your team presenting your project idea. It does not need to include any working software or hardware demonstrations, just a presentation of your Game idea or concept and your plan for making it. Your video must follow these requirements:
1. Your video must be submitted in WMV or MP4 formats and must be compressed to a file of no more than 500MB.
2. It must be no longer than three minutes in duration.
3. It must be solely the work of the team and any students assisting the team, including but not limited to, the actual filming, editing, graphic design, etc. of the video.
Project Proposal
This is a Microsoft Word or PDF document no longer than ten pages, or a PowerPoint presentation no longer than twenty slides, which explains your project/game and your team: Who your team is; what your project does; who your project is for; what platform features your project uses; and how you will bring your project to market. It is the written equivalent of the Live Presentation in terms of the material it covers. Your Project Proposal must meet the following criteria:
1. Your presentation must clearly address each of the Judging Criteria outlined above.
2. Your document must be in English.
3. It must be no larger than 50MB.
4. It must be in either DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, or PDF formats.
5. You may compress your document in a ZIP file for submission.