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

   Nonfiction (Mediocre)

   Your game will be based on a nonfictional theme. The Wright Brother's development of the airplane, the Apollo 11 landing on the moon, and War if Afghanistan are a few examples. Bonus points for providing critical commentary or ironic twists.

2. Technical requirements

   There are 2 technical requirements:

   Custom death (Great)

   The game must feature a weapon with one or more settings that are configurable. For example, a gun that has a power/spread - you can choose to cover more area, or to deal more damage at a specific point.

   Laziness (OK)

   There are always players that are lazy. And what happens with the lazy players ? They quit (shame on them ;)) ! But how do we keep those players playing your game then ?
   
   That's where the act of laziness comes in. As a bonus rule you can make your game 'appropiate' for lazy players by making the game easier every time (if possible) the player fails/dies.
   
   Preferably this is a game-option because the die-hard players won't like it when the game becomes easier whenever they make a mistake.

3. Artistic requirements

   There are 2 artistic requirements:

   Stupidity detection. (Good)

   Your game should have subtle means of detecting if the user is an idiot, and act accordingly. What the game decides to do with this measure of user-intelligence is up to you.
   

   Utter Dementia (Great)

   Nothing whatsoever is allowed to make any kind of rational sense. Bizarre environments (a pancake named Qrbrrbirbel that mutates into a bathtub), lack of a coherent plot (after rescuing the bowl of ceral, jump on Super Mario and eat a tree), ill-fitting cameos (collect Colin Mochries to gain powerups), objects that work in surprising ways (anvils that fly around like birds and make honking noises)... dig deep into the back of your mind where the weird and twisted lives and pour it all over your game.

4. Bonus rules

   There is 1 bonus rule:

   Act of Leonardo (Great)

   You may take any one rule and reverse it. This only applies to relevant rules. Meaning said rule should have an obvious reverse situation associated with it.
   
   However, if the rule has no obvious reverse situation associated with it, come up with a really good explanation as to why your new rule is the reverse of the original rule. Your new rule is subject to much scrutiny, so whit and humor may be the key element to approval.

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! :-)