2026 Showcase

The games showcase this year will be held on Saturday May 16, 2024 at 1 pm, in the new Bowers CIS event space. The event will be open it up to the general public. It will last until 4pm, when we will hold the awards ceremony.

Classes are still having finals on that day, so you are excused if you have a conflict. But barring that (or some other excuse), we expect everyone in your group to attend Showcase. This event is – for all intents and purposes – your final exam.

Registering for Showcase

We need for each group to officially “register” for showcase so that we can prepare a space for you on the floor. This year, that registration will take place in an (ungraded) CMS entry due Friday, May 8th. You do not need a game submitted by then. But you do need to submit the game information and promotional materials.

Final Game Information

We need to finalize your game information so that we can assign you a space and print out an official tent card for you. You should submit a text file with the following information:

  • The official name of your project, as you want it to appear on the tent card.
  • The official name of your “game studio”, as you want it to appear on the tent card.
  • The names of all team members, as you want them to appear on the tent card.
  • A ONE sentence description of your game (last line of your concept document).
  • A larger, but still only one paragraph description of your game.

Promotional Materials

In addition to the text file, we want you to provide us the following promotional material (which will be used to prominently display your game on the soon to be new and improved website).

  • A 600x600 “cover picture” representing your game (think title screen)
  • A 400x400 pixel picture for your group logo.
  • Four to five screenshots taken at 720p resolution.
  • A 160x90 pixel thumbnails for each screenshot.
  • A 1090x440 “banner picture” for your game.

To give you some idea of what we are asking for, here are the cover picture and group logo for the game Astrobeat.

              
Cover Picture Group Logo

Similarly, here is the banner picture for Astrobeat. Notice how the banner is used to promote the game; it is not a screenshot.

All of this information should be zipped together into a folder called promotional.zip and submitted to CMS. If we do not receive this information by 11:59 pm Friday, May 8th, your final grade will be penalized.

Game Trailers (OPTIONAL)

Historically, game trailers have been optional, and that is true again this year. With that said, we love to have them. These are flashy ways to promote your game that we can put on the Facebook page. They help sell your game when people are figuring out what to download. In the past these trailers were shown on the room projectors. While we are still working on the details, we hope to do this again (even though we are no longer in dedicated computer labs).

To give you an idea what makes a good trailer, her are the trailer reels for the past few years.