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March 19th
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Compo:


SpeedHack

Rule-O-Matic

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

    Dino Ninja Pirate Attack (OK)

    Everybody loves ninja. And pirates. Dinosaurs are so cool as well.
    Create a game that has dinosaurs, pirates and ninjas in it. You could use a dinasaur trained in the shadow arts as your main character and have him face a dread pirate - or the main character could be a ninja pirate.

  2. Technical requirements

    There are 2 technical requirements:

    Mini Game (Good)

    Every good game has another good game inside it. You must include a mini game, but it's up to you to determine how it fits in with the rest of the game. Perhaps it gives you an advantage, but it could just be for show.

    Slaps and Bennies (Good)

    Your program must contain at least two power-up and two power-down objects within the game that the player (or the opposing player) can collect to change the nature of the game. One of the power-ups and power-downs must be cumulative in nature, ie - if further additional powerups of that type are collected, then this multiplies up the effect. This cumulative effect should have a upper bound, so that beyond collecting a certain number of a certain type of power up, additional ones collected of that type have no effect. So a 'speed' powerup would increase the speed of the collecting player up a maximum value.

    The power-ups/power-downs can either wear off with time, or be counteracted by other collectable objects as you see fit. The player should know which powerups are currently active by some on-screen indicator.

  3. Artistic requirements

    There is 1 artistic requirement:

    Toon Violence (OK)

    Feature cartoonish effects like getting flattened by a giant hammer or falling form a cliff.

  4. Bonus rules

    There is 1 bonus rule:

    Act of Babel (Great)

    You may take one rule and, using an automated online translator, translate it into a different language and then back into English as many times as you like. Interpret the result as a replacement rule. You must document the steps you took, which must be reproducible and deterministic.

  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! :-)




SpeedHack created by Arron Shutt.
1999-2003 logos by Arron Shutt. 2004-2007 logos by Johan Peitz. 2009 logo by Pedro Gontijo. 2011 logo by Mark Oates.
Copyright ©2004-2011 by Matthew Leverton.