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Indie of the Year

Back for an 9th time, welcome to the 2018 Indie of the Year Awards, a celebration of the years finest indie games chosen by you and us. For the next 4 weeks it is up to you to vote for your favorite indie games so that they may make the top 100 which will be announced on the 11th of December.

Last year saw popular MMO Foxhole take the throne for the players choice Indie of the Year, followed by the huge run and gun hit Cuphead with the immersive team-oriented shooter Day of Infamy to round out the top 3. If you want to see the full players choice and editor's choice from 2017, look no further.

2018 has been a huge year for indie games, from the abundance of awesome titles to hit our Steam libraries, to the inability to avoid the phrase 'Battle Royale' no matter where you looked. Whilst Battle Royale games often begin with 100 players, the Indie of the Year awards will begin with thousands - to ensure your favourite indie's make it into the coveted top 100 you need to do your duty and smash that vote button harder than ever. Help hard working game developers feel the love and soon we will announce the 2018 Chicken Dinner Winner Indie of the Year. Good luck everyone!

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Official Rules

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.


Eligibility

Entrants of all ages are eligible to participate. Contestants who are minors, however, must have a parent/legal guardian submit written authorization. Employees and agents of Indie DB their respective agents, officers, parent companies, affiliates and subsidiaries (collectively "Contest Sponsors"), and members of their immediate families (parents, children, siblings, spouses) and/or persons living in the same households as such persons, whether related or not, are ineligible to enter the Contest and cannot win prizes. This contest is governed by the laws of Australia and of the State of Victoria. This contest is void where prohibited. Contestants are responsible for compliance with applicable laws in jurisdictions where they reside.

Contest Registration & Rules

All active projects (independent games) listed on the Indie DB (collectively "projects") will be automatically enrolled in the competition. Projects which have not made significant development progress in 2018 as determined by Indie DB cannot win a category or prize, they are only eligible to win a "honorable mention". Projects which are eligible and have won in previous years cannot win in the same category again, unless an exception is given by Indie DB staff on request (eg. your project upgraded from v1 to v2). You can request your project to be excluded at any time by contacting us with the details.

A representative from each winning project team will be required to fill in a Submission Release that verifies you represent the creators of the project and that you agree to comply with all the rules and all decisions of the judges. Each project team representative will be required to provide your name, address, date of birth, email address and telephone number. Prize recipients will be decided by the official project team leader.

All entries must be the original creations of the entrants, not contain any intellectual property not owned by the entrant and must never have been published or professionally developed unless written authorization from the intellectual property owner is provided at the time of entry submission. Entrants agree to indemnify and hold harmless sponsors from any copyright, trademark or other intellectual property infringement claim or liability with regard to their submissions. All submissions must be in compliance with the applicable game End User License Agreement that comes with each game.

An indie game is typically created by a team of 2 to 10 people, with little to no outside funding. Indie game teams larger than this, or with outside funding or publisher assistance, are not eligible unless an exception is given by Indie DB staff on request. Active, unreleased indies deemed by the Indie DB staff will only be eligible to win only in the "best upcoming" categories. The remaining categories will be won by indies active by the Indie DB staff, and have released a version of their indie to the public in 2018. The decisions of the Indie DB Staff regarding eligibility will be final and binding on all entrants.

Judging

The contest will be conducted in two (2) consecutive phases. Phase one will determine the top 100 projects. The closing date for voting for phase 1 shall be 10th December 2018, at which point votes will be tallied and verified and the top 100 projects will be announced on the official contest web site on 11th December 2018. Upon announcement of the results of Phase 1, Phase 2 will commence. The closing date for voting during Phase 2 shall be 20th December 2018, at which point the votes will be tallied electronically and the winners from each category will be announced on the official official contest web site before January 1st 2018.

Judging will be based on Indie DB members votes. Any project found falsely accumulating votes via dummy registrations or other means will be instantly disqualified. At the end of the competition the votes will be tallied electronically and the top indies and indie games from each category will be chosen by Indie DB staff. They will decide the ranking of the top indies and indie games in each category. The decisions of the Indie DB Staff will be final and binding on all entrants.

Indie DB reserves the right in its sole discretion to, disqualify any entry which is, in any individual judge's sole discretion, inappropriate, to disqualify winners and to chose alternate winners if information contained in the registration form cannot be verified to Indie DB's sole satisfaction, if the winner refuses to abide by the contest terms, or if the selection of a particular entrant would, in Indie DB's sole discretion, harm Indie DB or any Sponsor's reputation.

General Rules

Entrants agree to accept and abide by the rules of this contest and agree that any dispute with regard to the conduct of the contest, rule interpretation, or award of prizes, shall be submitted to Indie DB, whose decisions shall be binding and final. Entries not satisfying the Official Rules will be automatically disqualified.

By participating, entrant agrees to release and hold harmless sponsors and their respective parent companies, affiliates, subsidiaries, service agencies, independent contractors, and the officers, directors, employees, investors, agents, and representatives of any of the above organizations from any injury, loss, or damage to person, including death or property, due in-whole or in-part, directly or indirectly, to the acceptance from or use/misuse of a prize or participation in any promotion-related activity.

Sponsors are not responsible for any typographical or other error in the printing of this offer, in the administration of the contest, or in the announcement of prizes. In the event that sponsors are prevented from continuing with the promotion, or the integrity and/or feasibility of the promotion is severely undermined by any event beyond sponsors' control, including but not limited to fire; flood; epidemic; earthquake; explosion; labor dispute; strike; act of God; public enemy act; satellite or equipment failure; riot or civil disturbance; war (declared or undeclared); terrorist threat or activity; any federal, state, or local governmental law, order, or regulation; order of any court or jurisdiction; or other cause not reasonably within sponsors' control (each a "Force Majeure" event), sponsors will have the right, in their sole discretion, to abbreviate, modify, suspend, cancel, or terminate the promotion without further obligation.

If sponsors, in their sole discretion, elect to abbreviate the promotion as a result of a Force Majeure event, sponsors reserve the right, but not the obligation, to award the prize from among all eligible entries received up to the date of such Force Majeure event. The administrator of the contest is Indie DB.

An entrant's submission of entry constitutes permission for Indie DB and, in Indie DB's sole discretion, such other Contest Sponsors to use entrant's name, photograph, likeness and other material provided in the entry for any business purpose, including for promotional purposes in any media. Contest sponsors have the following rights with respect to contest entries:

  1. The right to place links to the indie's URL on their web sites and on the contest web site.
  2. The right to host the indie on their web site(s) and on the contest web site as well as provide copies of the entered indies for use on magazine cover discs, fan sites, download sites, and other web sites of their choosing.

Indie DB will not knowingly provide any personally identifying information that is not already publicly available of minors to any third party without the written consent of entrant's parent/legal guardian.

All rules, regulations and categories for this contest are subject to change without prior notice. This Contest shall be governed as to all matters, including validity, construction and performance of the Contest General Rules, by and under the Laws of the Australia and the State of Victoria and the sole venue for resolving all questions related the rights of the Entrants and winners in this Contest shall be the courts located in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Winner Notification

Winners will be notified through their profile email and winning projects will be highlighted on the official Indie Awards website.

Indie DB reserves the following rights.

  1. In the event any entry is deemed ineligible, Indie DB may award its prizes to alternate entries as it deems suitable
  2. Within 30 calendar days of prize announcements, winners must acknowledge their win or they will forfeit the prizes.

All costs, taxes, fees and expenses associated with entry into this contest and any prizes received shall be the sole responsibility of the entrants and winners.

Prizes

There are currently no prizes for the 2018 awards. If you would like to join as a prize sponsor please contact awards@indiedb.com