Rule-O-Matic

Don't read too much into the results of these sample spins! The method of picking rules is yet to be tweaked to its full potential, and until a good selection of rules have been added, it's rather meaningless.

Once the Rule-O-Matic has been spun for a final time, the authors of the selected rules will be contacted in order to add clarifications and last minute twists. They won't be allowed to do anything drastic, and to limit their advantage of a heads up, they won't know for sure which of the rules atually were selected. (For example, they may be notified that one of three specific rules have been selected.)

Here is a sample spin, with the following rules being chosen:

1. Genre requirements

   Evilness (Great)

   
   You must be the evil bad guy and destroy all wimpy heroes who try to attack you. Evil deeds and acts are to be rewarded in the game.

2. Technical requirements

   There are 2 technical requirements:

   Radius of Influence (Great)

   Some objects must have a radius property that will affect other objects somehow that are within the radius. The effect may increase the closer they are to the other object.

   Because the Boss Said To (Good)

   The game should be about doing something that you otherwise wouldn't want to do on your own. Your game must to include some authority figure (your boss, a customer, your wife, a dependent child) who has given you instructions and you have to be the one to carry out their bidding.

3. Artistic requirements

   There is 1 artistic requirement:

   In Outer Space (Good)

   Your design style must be based on a space theme. Space Fighter, Space Marines, Space Racing, etc. It doesn't matter how or why, and it doesn't need to affect gameplay. It just has to be in outer space.

4. Bonus rules

   There are 2 bonus rules:

   Act of Cod (Good)

   Overwrite one rule by replacing any of its words with "fish". The new rule must make sense, be creative, and can not conflict with any other rule.

   Act of Sagan (OK)

   If your game exposes an aspect of science in a comprehensive, positive and (if possible) poetic way, you may opt out of one of the other rules.

5. Other Important Info

   All entries must comply with all requirements except where nullified by Act of Dog.

   All entries must be submitted on or before 12:00 UTC on Monday 25th July without fail. All entries must be supplied in a ZIP file equal to or less than 250 KB in size. All source code, makefiles, documentation, and references to additional libraries used must be supplied in the ZIP file.

   You can assume that everyone will have a copy of Allegro (standard installation) installed. You do not need to supply one. It is okay to use a more recent version of Allegro, but if someone is unable to compile your game because of that, it's your fault. You should consider uploading binaries for people who have problems compiling the source onto your own website. I will be checking that the binary and source match up, so adding enhancements to the 'competition binary' is not permitted..

   If source code is reused from legal sources (your own, GPLed, public domain) you should declare this and what changes have been made, so that your work can be assessed for the voting.

   People should keep a informative and interesting account of their development through the competition. This can be sent after the competition for those people with no Internet access over the weekend. This does not affect your space requirement.

   A web-based "blog" update page will be available. This will allow spectators to see what is going on :-)

   You can make use of all information sources, mailing lists as you see fit. This is not an exam! :-)