Big Bad Game-a-thon Submission Process

Big Bad Game-a-thon is an online event hosted on Twitch. To participate you must be able to stream on Twitch and have your stream captured by our hosts and displayed on our own Twitch channel.

Submissions for Big Bad Game-a-thon open on July 1st each year and will be accompanied by an announcement on our social media and Discord, and a signup link appearing on our website.

Though we're a speedrun marathon first, we have accepted and do accept casual showcases if they are entertaining, well commentated, and bring something unique to the event. Big Bad Game-a-thon is about fun with janky and bad games first and foremost, and we are willing to make room for any submission that is fun and/or informative even if it does not fit the usual mold of a marathon submission.

If you're familiar with submitting runs to speedrun marathons, a lot of this should be familiar to you; if you're not, this document will go over key points on creating a submission our review team is looking for, and what happens next if you're accepted.

Creating a BBG Submission

When submitting a run to BBG, you'll need a couple bits of info handy: the game title, the platform it runs on, a runtime estimate, and a category name.

• If you are not submitting a speedrun, your category can be a general description like "100% playthrough showcase" or "Glitch exhibition".
• Your estimate should include any intro, outro, explainers, or extra content and account for the possibility of things going wrong during your live run. Aim for an estimate you can meet 90% of the time.
• You will be asked to provide content and accessibility warnings you think may be warranted. You will not be penalized for missing or not providing these but our review team would consider them helpful.
• You will have a freeform text field to sell us on your run. You should include why you think the game belongs in BBG and try to get our review team excited for your submission. This is the first thing reviewers will see, so set the stage for your submission video here!

You will also be required to provide a submission video. Our review team will review the video and look for several key things: that the game belongs in BBG, that your showcase or run looks consistent (or at least consistently fun), well-executed, and entertaining to watch, and that your commentary is engaging and entertaining.

• Your submission video should reflect what you plan to bring to the marathon including showing all content you plan to put on stage, and your commentary.
• If content was not in your submission video (extra stages, modes, cutscenes, etc), we may decline to have it added to your run later. Exceptions may be made on a case-by-case basis.
• Having some form of commentary in your submission video is very highly recommended. You do not need to be a pro but we need some explanation of what's going on.
• You may choose to submit a Personal Best or uncommentated playthrough video, but our review staff will seek examples of your commentary from elsewhere (past marathons, Twitch VODs, etc) and possibly penalize your submission.
• If you need help with co-commentary, you can ask on the BBG Discord; several community and staff members would love to assist you!

Review Process and Scheduling

Submissions close on the last day of July. Our review team will then begin reviewing runs. If we need additional detail about your submission, a staff member will contact you at the Discord account name you provided when you signed up.

The initial schedule for the marathon will be released, at latest, 28 days before the event. If you are selected you'll be notified and given access to the runner Discord chat and runner's resources. Due to submission volume, you will not be told directly if you were declined.

From this point all communication to accepted runners will be done on the BBG Discord with a role ping. Make sure you receive these pings!

You should check if your assigned schedule slot(s) work for you. If not, you have until 21 days before the marathon to let us know. We'll attempt to re-schedule you as is necessary.

At 21 days before the marathon the schedule is frozen and will only be changed with the consent of all runners involved in the change. At this time if we cannot accomodate a schedule change with minimal disruption, we may be forced to replace your run with a backup run.

We'll do everything we can to keep an accepted runner in the marathon, but the 21 day freeze is necessary for runners who may need to make plans around their scheduled run; they need to be able to count on their slot not moving much once those plans are made.

Content Policy and Runner Rules

Big Bad Game-a-thon aims to create a relaxed, fun atmosphere. We have a few rules on the kind of content we desire in our runs and commentary to try to encourage that kind of atmosphere and what we require to have a successful run from you:

1. We are, first and primary, a speedrun marathon. Speedruns are encouraged but other types of submissions (score attacks, superplays, TASes, showcases, etc) are accepted.
2. Submit games that are bad in an interesting way, and commentary that discusses that badness in an interesting way. Some games are bad because they're boring, or boring because they're bad. Remember, we want to keep the event fun and positive.
3. You will be required to use a specific layout template and stream to Twitch to allow our bot to capture your stream. If you are banned from Twitch, you cannot participate in BBG.
4. Being present in the BBG discord is required. We will perform almost all of our marathon orchestration there.
5. We aim for a content rating of mainly PG-13, but will flex into R-rated content for entertaining runs and showcases (with content warnings before such runs). Commentary does not need to be squeaky clean but should avoid unnecessary crassness, excessive profanity, and heavy negativity about our games and their developers. We want a comfy vibe here.
6. Regardless of vibe, bigotry and prejudice are not permitted in commentary or run presentation. Nor are racist, homophobic, transphobic, or ableist slurs or messaging. These will have your run ended prematurely and runners and commentators banned from BBG.
7. Runners are responsible for commentators they bring in. If a commentator's conduct is actionable, that action may and likely will be levied against the runner too.