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 (e.g. in the area around our classroom). 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.

Game Information

We need to finalize your game information so that we can assign you a space, put you on the Showcase website, and assign you a tent card. You should download the submission text file and fill in the required information. Your information should be in a specific format, as we will use it to automatically populate the website. In particular, you should fill out the entries as follows.

name: This is the official name of your project, as you want it to appear on the tent card.

studio: This is the official name of your “game studio”, as you want it to appear on the tent card.

tagline: This is a short punchy description of your game. It should start with a verb describing what the player is doing. Do not say something like “In this game you…” It should not mention lore. Say something like “Fight enemies while slamming to the beat.”

description: This is a longer description of your game, and can include game lore. It should only be one paragraph. Think of high concept statement from your documents.

genres: Give us up to two genres for your game, separated by commas (though you can have only one genre if you want). Genres are one word. It should be something that people recognize like platformer or rhythm.

credits: This is the list of people that have contributed to this game. This includes external members and consultants (e.g. that friend that hooked you up with music on the side). Each person should be on a line, and you should mention their role after a comma.

screenshot: In the promotional materials, we have asked for some screenshots. In this section, give us the name for each file together with a short alt-text description for the website. Each file is on a line and the alt-text is separated by a colon.

To see an example of a completed file, here is the information for the 2025 game Le Gooséry Store. It is important that you keep this format as it will make it easier for the automated tools to process it.

Promotional Materials

In addition to the text file, we want you to provide us with some promotional materials for your game’s website page. This page will allow us to refer to your game in marketing materials, is where people can download the game after Showcase. We need the following materials.

icon: We want a square icon for your game. It should be 512x512 or 1024x1024. It can have transparency, but understand that the website will have a black background, so it much look good on that. It should be a PNG and named icon.png.

logo: We want a logo for your game studio. It should also be square and follow the same restrictions for your icon. It should be named logo.png.

branding: We want a 16x9 “branding image” for your game. This can be a screenshot, a logo, or even art that does not appear in the game. The title of the game should appear on it somehow. In the examples below, Le Gooséry Store is just a simple logo while The Night Watch is from the title screen. If you use the title screen, don’t include the buttons.

screenshots: Please include four-to-five interesting screenshots of your game. They can be any resolution but they must all be the same size. These are the images you list and annotate in your game information.

To give you some idea of what we are asking for, here is the icon and logo for Le Gooséry Store.

              
Icon Logo

Here is the branding image for Le Gooséry Store.

For a more interesting branding image, here is the title screen for a stealth puzzler called The Night Watch.

All of these assets, together with the file info.txt, 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. At Showcase, we will have a large screen projector showing off these trailers. People often watch these trailers to figure out where to go next.

In addition, once the games are available on the website, they are a way for people to decide what to download. We will put these trailers in place of your branding image (through your branding image will still show when the trailers are not playing).

To give you an idea what makes a good trailer, here are the trailer reels for the past decade.

Preparing for Showcase

For students in CS/INFO 3152, showcase is where you will turn in the final version of your game for evaluation. As such you should bring the following materials to showcase, which we will collect at the end:

One Final Release

This last release will be the one put in the GDIAC archives. This is considered the final version of your project for grading purposes. As always, you make this release through your repository. This release must be posted before the end of Showcase at 4 pm. Releases dated after that time will receive no credit (which is very, very bad).

The release should not just contain a JAR. We want you to create an executable for your game. Even though this game is in Java, not everyone has the same Java VM or the appropriate OpenGL libraries. You should use jpackage to create an executable for your game. You should have already done this as part of Golden Master, so you should know how to do this by now.

One (colored) Copy of your Game Manual

Please consider binding the manual nicely, and making it manual-sized. Even just a staple binding goes a long way. These are in addition to any you want available at Showcase for students to peruse.

A Display Poster

Every group is required to create a poster, which will stand by your groups assigned location. This will give the attendees something to look at when browsing for a project to investigate, and something to read while waiting for their chance to play. The guidelines for your poster are as follows:

  • Make the poster roughly 24x36in in size
  • Display the name of your project at the top, in a large, readable font.
  • List everyone that contributed to your project, including external members
  • Keep the poster colorful and visual; keep text at a minimum.
  • Keep the poster interesting. Think back-of-the-box.

The poster should only be on one side. We will provide you with a foam core board to attach your poster so that it will stand up.

If you want some examples of posters, it is fine to have a minimal poster with simple instructions, like Out-of-Sync.

With that said, we often like the poster to include a quick start guide. Typically these can be taken directly out of your manual and do not need any extra art. Here are some quick start examples from previous semesters:

Setting up for Showcase

You need to set up early on the day of the showcase. At least one member of your group must be at the lab at noon, and check in with the staff that your project is set up. We need to verify that you are in the right space and that you have enough devices to run your game.

In the past, we have been able to give out speakers for students that wanted audio. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these speakers are now broken and so we are not much help there. This means you should bring your own speakers or headphones. We do ask that you not share ear buds, as that is unhygienic. It is okay if a player wants to user his or her ear buds, but headphones should properly cover the ear.

You are allowed to bring whatever extra peripherals you want. For example, if you want to bring a projector or an external monitor you are welcome to do so (though space is limited). XBox controllers are probably the most useful thing to bring (provided that your game supports them). We will have a few XBox controllers available for groups to borrow at the start of Showcase (first come, first served).

Once the showcase starts, at 1pm, we expect everyone in your group to be there. Furthermore, unless you have an emergency or extenuating circumstances, everyone in your group must stay for the entire showcase, 1-4 pm. You may wander around and check out the other projects, but at least one person from your group must be manning your assigned location at all times.