Frequently Asked Questions

The primary goal of the competition is to motivate young people to design and develop original video games. We believe that designing and developing a video game carries with it significant benefits for the creator including

• Introducing young people to Computer Science and giving them a context and motivation in which to engage with computational thinking and coding;
• Encouraging design and systems-based thinking and helping to cultivate the associated skills;
• Giving young people an opportunity to design with intentionality and with an audience and purpose in mind;
• Encouraging innovation and creative problem solving;
• Exposing young designers to the iterative and collaborative design process and the game creation process more broadly.

In addition to these benefits, making a game about a topic requires the creator to learn about and develop deep, systemic understanding of that topic.

The competition is supported by Endless, a collection of independent companies and initiatives focused on supporting technology that cultivates digital agency among youth. Endless believes in the power of technology to transform lives for the better, and that the people who use that technology should be part of building it.

The competition is developed and presented by XPRIZE in partnership with E-Line Media.

XPRIZE designs and operates multi-million-dollar, global competitions to accelerate the development of technological breakthroughs that benefit humanity. Active competitions include the $10 Million ANA Avatar XPRIZE and the $5 Million IBM Watson AI XPRIZE, the $20 Million NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE, and the $10 Million Rainforest XPRIZE.

E-Line Media is a video game developer and publisher passionate about harnessing the power of games to help players understand and shape the world. For over ten years, E-Line has worked to empower game players to become game creators.

The competition is open to young people around the world between the ages of 10 and 18.

The competition is organized into two age divisions: a Junior Division for entrants ages 10-13 and a Senior Division for entrants ages 14-18. Entries in the Junior Division are not in competition with those in the Senior Division.

You may not participate in the competition if you reside in a location where your participation is prohibited by law. Please review the Official Rules for detailed eligibility information.

Age eligibility is based on your age at the start of the entry period (May 14, 2020). If you were 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 or 18 years old on that day, you may enter Code Games (assuming you meet all other eligibility requirements as outlined in the Official Rules), and should enter the appropriate age division based on your age on that date.

We cannot make exceptions for individuals younger or older than this, or for individuals who will become eligible during the entry period but were not eligible as of May 14, 2020. As noted in the Rules, the birth date of potential winners will be verified and any potential winner who does not meet the age requirements will be disqualified.

We understand that guidelines like this can be frustrating, but in fairness to all participants, they must be strictly enforced. Please do not write us asking for an individual exception to be made.

Registration and submissions are not open at this time. Entries for the 2020 Challenge were accepted between May 14, 2020 and October 14, 2020.

Yes, if it is required by law in your location, for instance If you are below the legal age of majority. If your game is selected as a potential winner, we will verify parental permission as part of the eligibility verification process. Your parent/guardian will also be required to complete and return legal documents related to your winning entry.

Each division includes a specific entry track for teams where up to 4 eligible entrants may work together on a project. In all other tracks, entrants must work individually. Please see the Official Rules for more information.

All members of a team must be from the same age division.

Only one member should register and submit the game on behalf of the entire team. If your game is selected as a potential winner, we will verify the eligibility of all team members and all team members will receive recognition and prizes.

You can be part of only one entry to the competition. This means you may submit one (and only one) entry to an individual track or one (and only one) entry as a member of a team but not both.

We define a game as “a voluntary activity structured by rules, with a defined outcome (winning, losing) or other quantifiable feedback (e.g., points)” (My Thai et al., 2010). A video game is a game where play is facilitated exclusively (or almost exclusively) through the use of a computer (consoles, mobile devices and VR hardware are all examples of computers).

Games generally have the following six elements:

• Space -- The area and layout of the physical world or a virtual environment in which the game takes place;
• Goals -- The positive outcomes players are trying to achieve;
• Challenges -- Factors that make it difficult for players to achieve their goals;
• Components -- The things in the physical or virtual game world: the ‘nouns’ of the game;
• Mechanics -- The things players do when they play the game: the ‘verbs’ of the game;
• Rules -- Factors that dictate what players can and cannot do while playing the game.

First and foremost, it should be fun and original. There are several thematic tracks where entrants can earn Grand Prizes for making a game about a certain topic or theme. Though you are invited and encouraged to make your game about one of these themes, you do not have to. For all other tracks, your game can be about any topic you wish.

All submissions must be made electronically through the Challenge website. Please see the Official Rules for more information.

No, just follow the normal submission process, including selecting the correct platform-specific track, when you submit your game through the Challenge website. Games with thematic content that would make them eligible for a thematic prize will be identified during the judging process and placed into consideration for the appropriate thematic track(s) in addition to the platform-specific one.

Please see the Submission Guidelines section of the Official Rules.

For the Challenge cycle running May 14 - October 14, 2020, all playable games and written design documents had to be in the English language.

Our hope is to continue to operate Code Games as a global game-making challenge for years to come. As part of this, we are actively pursuing plans to support additional languages in future cycles, both for submissions and for game-making resources.

If you or your organization has resources or capacity that might be helpful in this area, we would love to hear from you!

Short answer: You can use any tool you want as long as the playable game you submit meets the Submission Guidelines described in the Official Rules. Each age division includes an “Open Platform” track for entries made with creation tools other than those specifically listed on the Code Games site.

Longer answer: While we cannot offer specific guidance on every game-making tool out there, here is some general advice:

• In the resources section of the site, you will find information on many different game-making tools. You’ll find everything from tools specifically designed for inexperienced game makers all the way up to the ones the pros use. You can safely use any tool listed here.
• If you would like to use a tool that isn't listed, that's still probably OK. But you should do a little research first. If you're on the younger side, you may want to ask a parent or teacher to help you with this research. Start by reviewing the Submission Guidelines in the Official Rules, then look into the tool you are planning to use. Pay attention to these two points especially:
  • In the end, the game you submit has to be playable by our judges in a web browser or on a PC/Mac/Linux computer, iOS or Android device. And the judges need to be able to play it without having to buy any special hardware, software or purchase a subscription to something.
  • You need to have a legal right to the game you make, and to share it with others. Certain game-making tools may limit your ability to distribute your game. You will want to look for and review documents like your tool's "Licensing Agreement" or "Terms of Use" to see if this is the case.

The people operating the Challenge can't do this research for you or provide a determination about a specific tool, so please do not contact us asking for a 'ruling.'

Because the capabilities of game-making tools vary significantly, we have established separate tracks for games made with several different tools. Games in one platform-specific track are not in competition with games in a different one. Please see the Official Rules for more information.

Absolutely! Several of the game-making tools on the site are specifically designed to introduce game-making and programming to inexperienced game makers. If you’ve never made a digital game or programmed before, now is a great time to try!

Each age division also includes a “Written Game Design” document track where entrants can submit a written design for an original game, rather than a playable game. Please see the Official Rules for more information.

Your game’s design, world, characters and narrative, if present, must be the original work of you (or you and your teammates in the team tracks) and no one else. For example, your game can’t copy the level design of your favorite commercial game or include characters from another game, movie, book or TV show.

Aside from those elements, you may include material owned or created by someone else -- for example music, art or software code -- as long as you have a legal right to use the material. Many game-making tools include music, art and software libraries with content that creators can use and distribute in their own games. Consult your tool’s documentation and the Official Rules for more information.

You will continue to own your game’s Intellectual Property. By entering, you grant the organizations running the competition certain limited rights to use and display your game for purposes related to the competition. Please see the Official Rules for more information.

In 2020, the winner of each Grand Prize for games created in the thematic tracks received

• A $2,000 USD cash prize
• Copies of several pieces of game-making and learning software

The winners of the other, platform-specific tracks received

• A $1,000 USD cash prize
• Copies of several pieces of game-making and learning software

All entries are judged according to the following criteria, which are weighted equally:

• Creative Vision: ​The extent to which the Project evidences an innovative, clear, consistent and integrated creative vision across the totality of the experience;
• Engaging Gameplay: The extent to which the gameplay attracts and sustains the player’s attention;
• Balance: The extent to which the gameplay evidences balance (e.g. tuning of controls and mechanics; balance of challenge and rewards; level and progression of difficulty for the game’s intended audience; construction of the game’s formal/mathematical ruleset).
• Technical Execution: The extent to which the Project evidences production value and polish; and the extent to which the Project performs well and is free of bugs and other errors.

Entries in the thematic tracks are judged according to those criteria plus an additional criterion for Theme, or the extent to which the project addresses and embodies the relevant theme. For playable games, the criteria are applied to the game exactly as submitted. For written designs, we apply the criteria based on how likely a playable game based on the written design would be to embody the criteria.

The technical stuff matters: how well-executed your game is technically is one of the judging criteria. More deeply, game-making is both a creative and a technical process. The unique challenge of game-making lies in using highly technical skills to bring creative ideas to life. But keep two things in mind:

• The judges are evaluating your playable game, not your source code. What matters is how your technical execution contributes to the play experience, not how elegantly written your scripts are or how sophisticated your game’s technical architecture is.
• Technical execution is important, but it is only one component of your game’s score. A game that was technically amazing but unoriginal, boring and poorly balanced is unlikely to do well in the competition.

The judging process is “blind,” so information about the entrants’ identities (e.g. name, location, specific age, gender, etc.) is not shared with the judges.

There are two phases to the judging process. In the first phase, every submission is played and reviewed by competition staff. Entries that do not meet the eligibility requirements or Content Guidelines are identified and the top games in each track are promoted to the second phase. In Phase Two, those top games are played and scored by a panel of distinguished judges. The judges’ scores for each game are combined and the combined scores are used to determine the winning games in each track.

Please see the Official Rules for more information.

When you create your account on the competition website, you must provide a verified email address. If your entry is selected as a potential winner, we will use this email address to contact you (or your parent/guardian) to begin the eligibility verification process. Please be aware that failure to respond to our contact attempts in a timely manner may result in disqualification. Please see the Official Rules for more information.