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

   Food (Good)

   Make a game about food. It can be about eating it, serving it, selling it, fighting for it, fighting with it, or whatever other food usage you can imagine.

2. Technical requirements

   There are 2 technical requirements:

   Physics Matters (Good)

   Oil slicks, gluey walls, dense gas, magnetic plates, forceful winds, and bouncy springs all make for interesting gameplay.
   
   To meet the requirements of this technical rule, your game must include creative use of the different states of matter (solid, liquid, gas) and/or the physical properties (friction, drag, magnetism, etc.)

   Gamepad Limitations (OK)

   The input is limited. No mouse support, A single 4-button direction pad, an 'A', 'B', 'Select' and 'Start' button.
   
   The buttons must behave according to standards as well. For menus 'A' is always "select" or "choose", and 'B' is always "escape" or "exit". 'Select' may pause, cycle items, or assist in navigating menus. 'Start' must pause the game action, it may however bring up a menu or a 'safe' screen. (i.e. you will not game over) Pushing 'start' while paused will always continue gameplay.
   
   If there is support for two or more players, the player who pushes 'start' is the only player with the ability to interact with the program until he/she pushes 'start' again.

3. Artistic requirements

   There are 2 artistic requirements:

   Player Customization (Great)

   The game should allow the player to customize a certain aspect. This could be the appearence of the main character, the controls, the difficulty, etc.

   Boom, Boom, BOOM! (Great)

   The game must feature lots of huge explosions both with and without a good reason.

4. Bonus rules

   There are 2 bonus rules:

   Act of Chewbacca (Great)

   You can opt out of one rule if your game contains no verbal communication at all. Your game can't use words, but it can still use symbols, icons and descriptive sound effects.

   Act of Asimov (Great)

   You may omit one other rule if your multiplayer game features an AI that can play as a player.

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! :-)