Dates

All times are ICT (UTC+7). Conversions given for reference, be sure to check your own timezone before the deadline.

Things with an asterisk (*) are optional

Judging: Monday 11 January to Friday 15 January Winners announced: Saturday 16 January

The submission deadline is hard. Devpost closes submissions automatically at 7:00 PM ICT and we cannot reopen it for individual entries, so don't leave it to the final minute, and submit something early - you can edit it up to the deadline.

Eligibility

You can enter if you:

• Are aged 13 to 18 at the time of registration
• Are not enrolled as a full-time university or college student
• Have permission from a parent or guardian to take part
• Have a Devpost account
• Agree to the Checkpoint code of conduct 

Checkpoint is open worldwide. There are no restrictions on country of residence.

You cannot enter if you are an organiser, judge, mentor, or immediate family of any of the above.

A note for parents and guardians: Checkpoint is a free, non-commercial event run by students, with named adult advisors and a published code of conduct. All mentoring and communication happens in public channels and there are no one-to-one messages between adults and participants. Questions can go to vdle@stu.dgs.org.vn.

Prizes: some prizes are provided by sponsors and may have their own age or regional requirements. Where a prize can't be issued to a winner because of those restrictions, we'll substitute an alternative of comparable value if available.

Project and Submission Requirements

What must be new

All code and assets must be created during the 48-hour event window.

Allowed before kickoff:

• Ideas, planning, sketches, and design documents
• Research into your topic or cause
• Learning your engine or tools
• Forming a team
• Installing software and setting up your environment

Allowed during the event:

• Open-source libraries, frameworks, and game engines
• Free or licensed asset packs, fonts, music, and sound effects, provided you have the right to use them and you credit the source
• Code generated with AI tools
• Tutorials and documentation

Not allowed:

• Code, art, or builds you made before kickoff
• Submitting an existing project with changes
• Work made by someone who isn't a listed team member
• Anything you don't have the rights to use

We're running this on an honor system. Every submission asks you to state what existed before the start date answer it honestly and you'll be fine.

Content standards

Submissions must be appropriate for an audience aged 13 and up. Nothing sexual, nothing gratuitously violent, nothing that harasses or demeans a group of people. Games about difficult subjects are welcome and that's part of the theme, but handle them with care.

Games must not include real people's personal information, or collect data from players beyond what the game needs to run.

Ownership

You keep everything you make. Checkpoint claims no ownership of your project and no rights to your code, art, or ideas.

By submitting, you give us permission to show your project: screenshots, video clips, and a link, in our recap post, on our site, and on social media, with credit to you and your team. If you'd rather we didn't, say so in your submission and we won't.

Teams

• 1 to 4 people
• Team size does not affect judging
• You may only be on one team
• Prizes go to the team lead listed on the submission, who is responsible for splitting them among the team

Prizes

Six categories:

Best Beginner Project is for people who've never finished a game before. It's judged against a different standard: ambition, effort, and what you learned matter more than polish. Tick the beginner box when you submit and you'll be considered for both this and the overall categories.

A submission can win more than one category.

Judging Criteria and Winner Selection

Every submission is scored by at least two judges against five criteria.

On Art & Design specifically: We are scoring coherence and intent, not budget or realism. Four flat colours and a single font, chosen well and used consistently, will score higher than a pile of mismatched asset packs. Plain shapes, pixel art, hand-drawn scribbles and pure text are all capable of full marks. What we're looking at is whether someone made functional choices and carried them through, including whether a player can actually read the text, tell what's interactive, and follow what's happening.

Since the theme is Games For Good, readability and accessibility count here too. If your game is usable by more people, that shows up in this score.

What we are not scoring: asset budget, graphical fidelity, team size, how much you spent, technical complexity that doesn't serve the game, or how much AI you did or didn't use.

Process:

1. Submissions close Sunday 10 January, 7:00 PM ICT.
2. Organisers check every entry meets the submission requirements. Entries missing a playable link or a demo video may be disqualified, and we'll try to contact you first where there's time.
3. Judges score independently between 11 and 15 January.
4. Scores are averaged. Ties are broken by the Impact score, then by Creativity.
5. Winners announced Saturday 16 January, here and in the Discord.

Code of Conduct

We take participant safety seriously. Before registering, please read the attached Code of Conduct. If you see a violation of it, please report it to our team via the links within the code. 

https://bit.ly/3TarGqw