Developers have chance to secure $500,000 and exclusive development deal; submissions open Monday, Nov. 29 at RogueJam.com
Rogue Games, a leading publisher obsessed with innovation and style, is on the hunt for more badass games from top indie creators. Starting Monday, Nov. 29, original games of any variety can be submitted to the first-ever Rogue Jam, an unprecedented indie developer celebration that will culminate with an online weeklong event highlighting the best submissions. Winners will also have a chance at exclusive development deals and a share of $800,000 in funding plus a variety of prizes.
The Rogue Jam judges are a varied panel of six well-known and respected video game industry leaders and luminaries, including Reggie Fils-Aime (formerly Nintendo), Chris Lee (Netflix), Kimberly Pointer Corbett (Warner Bros), Peer Schneider (IGN), Matt Casamassina (Rogue) and Chris Archer (Rogue).
“We love bizarre, unforgettable games, so we’re ready to be wowed with crazy cool concepts to help indie developers go Rogue, pun intended,” says Matt Casamassina, CEO, Rogue. “With Rogue Jam, we want to help indie devs bring their best, weirdest, most original game ideas to life, whatever they are.”
Casamassina adds that even though it’s called a “Jam,” judges aren’t looking for games that are started and finished in a month. “We don’t care if it’s a game that’s been in the works for years with a deep team or a passion project you’ve worked on in bits and pieces in your spare time.”
The Rogue Jam submission portal opens at www.RogueJam.com once the clock strikes midnight Monday, Nov. 29, 2021. Developers have one month to submit their game until the portal closes Friday, Dec. 31, 2021. Winners will be announced in March 2022 in a week-long Shark Tank style reveal produced by IGN.
Judging Criteria
Submissions will be judged on a variety of criteria, including:
- Fun
- Originality
- Style (graphics or presentation)
- Gameplay
- Polish
- Potential
Even though Rogue is Rogue, there’s gotta be some order to the chaos. Full rules, terms and conditions can be found at www.roguejam.com, but key rules include:
- Anyone over 18 can submit an original, unpublished creation that judges can play (or fully comprehend with video)
- There are no limits to the number of people within a team–but only one team member signs up for Rogue Jam and submits the game.
- The game must be playable
- Any platform is fine
Currently, five categories are planned, with judges reserving the right to award more. These are:
- OVERALL WINNER
- The absolute favorite of the judges
- PRIZE: $500,000 in support, plus a Rogue Publishing Deal
- WTF?
- The weirdest, wildest game of Rogue Jam
- PRIZE: $100,000 in support, plus a Rogue Publishing Deal
- EYE-POPPINGLY BEAUTIFUL
- Is it art? It doesn’t matter as long as the judges think it’s drop-dead gorgeous
- PRIZE: $100,000 in support, plus a Rogue Publishing Deal
- HUGE POTENTIAL
- An amazing concept that judges think needs a little more TLC
- PRIZE: $50,000 in support, plus Rogue Right of First Refusal
- AUDIENCE CHOICE
- During the judging process, fans will have a chance to pick their favorite via online and social voting
- PRIZE: $50,000 in support, plus Rogue Right of First Refusal
REGGIE FILS-AIMÉ – FORMER PRESIDENT & COO OF NINTENDO OF AMERICA; ROGUE GAMES BOARD ADVISOR
- Reggie is a seasoned executive who, as Nintendo of America’s president and chief operating officer, relaunched the company’s brand to bring our world the DS, 3DS, Wii, and Switch.
- He also successfully launched countless games across Nintendo’s wide portfolio of hit franchises, from Mario to Zelda.
- Reggie famously kicks ass and takes names and is fondly known as the Reggie-nator.
- Reggie remains an active businessman, investor, and philanthropist. Currently the Leader in Residence at Cornell University’s Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management.
- As the global head of game sourcing at Netflix, Chris Lee is responsible for building and overseeing the content portfolio of games from external studios.
- In the years prior to his current role, he led video game licensing and several different groups within the US marketing organization.
- Before joining Netflix Chris held a variety of roles in the video game industry. Most recently he was CEO and co-founder of En Masse Entertainment, a publisher focused on online games. Prior to that he managed major blockbuster video game franchises and delivered successful marketing launches on titles including Need for Speed (EA), Halo, and Age of Empires (Microsoft).
- Kimberly is currently the Senior Vice President of Digital Publishing at Warner Bros. Games, where her team supports titles like Game of Thrones: Conquest and Mortal Kombat 11.
- Prior to Warner Bros. Games, Kimberly published top-grossing titles including Marvel: Contest of Champions and Words with Friends.
- Kimberly’s expertise is in User Acquisition and building proprietary publishing automation tools that leverage data and auction science.
- Peer is the Executive Vice President and Chief Content Officer of IGN Entertainment, responsible for the company’s overall content strategy, editorial, video, commerce, social media, and product verticals.
- As one of the founders of the Ziff Davis-owned media company (formerly known as Snowball), he laid the groundwork for a multi-screen network that now reaches more than 283 million fans across the web, apps, YouTube, social platforms, and OTT.
- Born and raised in Germany, Peer lived in Japan for many years, where he studied at Tokyo’s Sophia University and worked on projects for a variety of media companies.
- And yes, he’s also a Reaction Guy.
- Matt is a co-founder of IGN Entertainment, where he held many roles including editor-in-chief and editor-at-large.
- Later, he built Apple’s App Store games editorial team, which he managed for almost a decade. Matt has an eye for games and was also an Apple Design Award judge for most of his time at Apple.
- As the founder and CEO of Rogue, he sets the vision for the company and is intimately involved in the selection of all the games that it publishes.
- Beyond gaming, Matt is an accomplished science-fiction author who has written two critically acclaimed books, Dead Weight and Sophistication, with a third underway.
- Chris is a former designer, producer, programmer, director of games and startup founder.
- Since the early 90s, he and his teams have built more than 100 games across nearly every platform with millions of units sold and billions in revenue generated.
- As CSO, Archer oversees Rogue’s worldwide studios and global portfolio. He guides the overall strategy for the publisher through business development, strategic collaborations, platform relations, and data-driven quantitative and and qualitative analysis.
Related: Fisti-Fluffs Comes to Switch and PC Sept. 23
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