SAGE 2024 is a festival led and promoted by our community that welcomes creative endeavors. Whether you are a developer, or a streamer, all the information you need will be on this page.
NOTE: The Media Kit for this year will be available at a later date. You will be updated when it's ready.
Table of Contents:
Minimum Effort
Your submission needs a minimum amount of effort and substantial content. This is by no means strict, in the topic of games we only try to avoid submissions that would barely qualify as such: a basic test scene with a character model in it is not acceptable.
Not a Contest
SAGE isn’t - and has never - been a contest. This means we don’t rate, judge, or award games. Do not worry about how “good” you think your submission is; all we’re looking for is some effort and something unique to share. SAGE is a place for people of all skill levels to show off what they’ve learned, get feedback for improvement and for us to all have fun with the cool things we all create for each other. Bullying of people with legitimate submissions because they’re “not as good” is not an acceptable behavior at SAGE.
Do not hold your submission hostage
We ask you to host your project on SFGHQ. If the project size is deemed too big to be hosted on SFGHQ (500Mb), you must choose an alternative hosting method that makes your submission easy to access. We will not host submissions that require excessive, arbitrary or unusual limitations to access, such as requirements to sign up to external platforms.
No walled gardens
We understand the convenience of working with environments such as Scratch, Roblox and Dream. However, we do not allow games that require accessing external platforms as their accessibility may be limited and cannot be guaranteed for the foreseeable future. HTML games may be accepted if hosted in a reliable way, for instance on Itch.io.
Your game should behave like a game
No spooky stuff! If it does anything else other than being a game, such as secret data collection, any form of remote control, mandatory online checks for non-online content, interactions with system processes for non-gameplay purposes, the submission is not considered acceptable at SAGE and will be dealt with harshly. Anything harmful will lead to an immediate ban.
Make English the primary language for your Booth
SAGE is an international event, as such the preferred language is English. Entries and booths in entirely different languages can be difficult to navigate to the majority of the community. We therefore we ask your submission, as well as your booth page, to be accessible to an English-speaking audience. Supporting multiple languages is welcome!
Your Demo must be free of charge
All booths should lead to something that can be freely downloaded. For commercial indie projects this means offering a free demo is offered for the duration of the event.
A note on donations for fangames
Please note that we will not accept fangames that are accepting donations of any kind towards their project, even if the game itself is free. This includes pages such as Patreon that are linked to the project or the creators/team behind it, as well as itch.io with pages prompting for donations. SEGA has been kind enough to allow us to run SAGE for all these years without any issues, but fan games should always be about learning and passion, not for profit. This rule does not apply to original titles submitted to SAGE.
On the usage of generative AI
As of right now we do not consider the usage of generative AI as a relevant feature for the event, nor for it to be enough to cover our minimum effort rule as the usage of such tools are in direct contradiction to the main goals and expectations for the event. If for some reason you might feel the need to make use of such tools, we ask you to be upfront about it and disclose it. We will analyze things on a case-by-case basis and might offer some leeway if we consider it justified; though, as a creative community, we rather look forward to seeing your own work. Failure to communicate the usage of generative AI tools in your project might result in you getting barred from future SAGE events.
- Creating a booth through Sonic Fan Games HQ’s Showcase is mandatory to join SAGE.
- Returning entries must also require a new booth as to distinguish them from Demos previously submitted.
- All entries with files that weight less than 500MB must be uploaded directly to the site.
- All entries must be submitted by August 15th 2024, 11:59 PM EST. Entries must be playable and contain files that are meant to be enjoyed during SAGE. For more details please refer to the [booth guide].
- Approved entries can be freely updated.
- ROM Hacks and Mods are allowed as long as they bring considerable changes from its source material. Simple level ports or character swaps won’t be accepted.
- Mods for decompilations (for instance of the RSDK Sonic games) are only allowed to include the necessary files needed to let the mod run. Full Data folders containing the base game assets won't be accepted. In the case of EXE mods, they may use base files if they are crucial in making the executable operate properly. ROM hacks should only have the necessary patch files in the download.
- Frameworks/Engines are welcome and must follow the same guidelines as stated above.
- It is allowed to submit multiple game projects as long as they all individually follow the submission regulations and guidelines.
- Entries from users currently banned from SFGHQ won’t be accepted.
If you're unsure on how to make a booth for SAGE, here's a detailed guide from a few years back that goes over all the necessary steps.
SAGE '21 - Booth Guide
SAGE '21 has officially been announced earlier this month and the guidelines & deadlines have also been recently published. Much like last year's SAGE this year demands the usage of the Showcase System for submitting your projects. For returning members we all know how much of a cake walk that...
Another year, another Trailer! If you want your game to take part to the SAGE 2024 showcase trailer, please fill in the following Form and follow the instructions within it.
- You have until August 15th 2024, 11:59 PM EST to send your footage.
- Remember that in order to showcase your project at SAGE 2024's Trailer, you must have your submission ready with your booth . If you are unsure on how to make a booth, check out the Booth Guide.
- Name the file or video according to your game submission. Ex: "game_name_trailer.mp4" or "Game Name" (if using Youtube/Vimeo).
- The game footage can be up to 15 seconds in length .
- Follow the editing guidelines as seen in here:
Along with the guidelines, we also require:
- Full HD resolution or higher (1920x1080).
- 30 FPS or higher (60 FPS preferred).
- A common video file format (like .MP4).
- To reserve your time for streaming, please send an email to [email protected] with your name and with “Stream” in the subject or reach out to the organizers of the event.
- Upon contact, we would like to know the following:
- The name of your stream.
- The time at which you would like to broadcast your stream in EST.
- (Optional) Your availability during SAGE week.
- What content your stream will involve (mostly indie, mostly sonic, mostly romhacks, etc.).
- A link to your current stream page (Youtube, Twitch, etc.).
- We will do our best to work with and around everyone’s schedules. Keep in mind we will have plans at the beginning and end of SAGE, but the rest of the slots will go quick. Make sure to reserve your streaming slot as soon as possible!
- Unless you have a very specific reason for your stream to be longer, please try to keep slot reservations in the 2-3 hour range, though this is a loose restriction that is much more lax during the less active hours of the event (Late hours).
- Streams targeted at English-speaking audiences will take priority in our time slots.
Work in progress, we'll update this section as questions get frequently asked
For additional questions, please send a private message on Discord to RaoulWB (@RaoulWB), DaisukeDoi (@thehumansonikku), RummySM (@RummySM) or P3DR0 (@litkng).
