FAQ

EXE 2027 is Sri Lanka's flagship national game development championship curated by LEVELSTAIR. It brings together school students, university undergraduates, and indie creators across the island to develop innovative games, connect with mentors, and compete for substantial cash prizes, trophies, and industry opportunities.

LEVELSTAIR (levelstair.com) is the overarching game development community and ecosystem in Sri Lanka. portal.levelstair.com is its interactive tournament and community hub where participants manage team profiles, track jams, and vote on projects. LKGDC (lkgdc.com - Lanka Game Developers Conference) is the premier national developer summit where standout EXE games and developers are showcased to international publishers and industry leaders.

At Level Up 2026 / LKGDC 2026 (held at the Dialog Axiata Auditorium), EXE Extended games were playtested live by hundreds of gamers and industry publishers. Three major learnings emerged: first, WebGL (browser-playable) builds drastically improved playtest completion rates over Windows-only installers; second, developers needed earlier mentorship on Game Design Documents (GDD) to avoid scope creep; third, community voting needed a unified, authenticated portal with fair-weight averaging to prevent vote brigading. EXE 2027 directly integrates all three enhancements.

For EXE 2027, you host your build, screenshots, and game documentation directly on itch.io. Then, you link your itch.io project into portal.levelstair.com under the EXE 2027 portal challenge. Submissions are synced automatically and showcased on portal.levelstair.com, allowing community members, fellow creators, and expert judges to play, review, and vote transparently in one central place.

Based on player feedback from EXE Extended 2026, WebGL playable in-browser builds are highly recommended because voters on portal.levelstair.com can play immediately without downloading files. However, Windows PC standalone executables are also fully supported. If possible, providing both gives you the widest voter reach.

portal.levelstair.com features an adjusted scoring algorithm evaluated across five core criteria: Theme Interpretation, Gameplay & Fun Factor, Game Mechanics, Visuals & Aesthetics, and Audio Design. The platform uses weighted averages to eliminate volume bias, ensuring games with fewer overall voters are scored fairly against entries with large followings. A panel of senior industry veterans also conducts in-depth judging.

Both solo developers and teams of up to 5 members are welcome. If your team consists of students across different schools or faculties, you can register under the appropriate category corresponding to the majority of your members (or University category for mixed teams).

You are free to use any game engine (Unity, Unreal Engine, Godot, GameMaker, Bevy, or custom engines). Pre-made assets, open-source libraries, and generative AI tools are permitted provided you hold legitimate licenses or usage rights, disclose their use in your submission documentation, and ensure that all core gameplay programming and original design are produced during the competition window.

EXE 2027 maintains two dedicated primary brackets: the School Category (secondary school students up to Advanced Level) and the University Category (undergraduates and recent graduates). Both categories have independent prize pools and dedicated awards so that school-level talent competes on equal footing.

In addition to the cash prize pool, category championship trophies, and specialized discipline awards (Best Game Design, Best Audio/Visuals, People's Choice), outstanding games receive direct exhibition booths at LKGDC and mentorship sessions with veteran game studios.