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

   In the hot seat (OK)

   Oops, you just got sucked into your own game! you, the programmer, are now the main character. Be sure to make the main character look and behave as you would!

2. Technical requirements

   There is 1 technical requirement:

   Low-Res Game (OK)

   Your game must run in a resolution of 320x240 pixels, not more, not less.

3. Artistic requirements

   There are 2 artistic requirements:

   Primitive Perfection (Great)

   All sprites must be an obvious composition of primitive shapes. They can be pre-rendered or drawn directly.

   Don't pick this item! (Great)

   There must be getable items in the game that are bad to the player (like cursed items).

4. Bonus rules

   There are 2 bonus rules:

   Act of Poetic Licence (Mediocre)

   If you can re-write all but one of the rules in such a way that they all rhyme and their meaning is not changed in any way, then you may omit the one rule you did not make rhyme, but only if you can invent your own rule that rhymes with all the other rules.

   Act of Politician (Good)

   Hide your incompetence! If one rule is too tough for you, omit it by putting in a distraction that kicks donkeys. F.i. if one rule says you must have a high score table, you should make the UI look like if there was one, but when game ends, interrupt everything with lots of eye candy and great music. Or with a neat bonus mini game.

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! :-)