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

   Summer Theme (Good)

   Yes, it's summer and so should be your game. Bright skies, shining sun and nice blue sea. As long as you get a nice warm summer feeling of the game it's allright!

2. Technical requirements

   There are 2 technical requirements:

   Second Person Sh...what!? (Great)

   Your game must be in Second Person - this means you're seeing from the eyes of a character you don't have full control over, or you could be controlling a character who indirectly controls the main one. There must be, anyway, someone between the player and the main character.
   
   As examples, the character's head could be in a jar that must be transported separately from his body, or the character could be seeing from his enemy's point of view, but controlling his own character.

   Final Boss (Great)

   The game must have a final boss to defeat. This does not limit you into an adventure or action game! Even Tetris Attack featured "bosses" of sorts.

3. Artistic requirements

   There are 2 artistic requirements:

   Show some respect (Good)

   In many games, the game and characters within refer to you the exact same way whether you are a level 1 novice warrior or the dude who just saved the world.
   
   Avoid this in your game. Make the in-game characters notice player's actions and respond to them, or make the game itself change the way it refers to the player according to his deeds and achievements.

   Time Trouble Take A (Good)

   Time should somehow change throughout the game. This could either be something simple such as stopping time, or as complex as time speeding up, slowing down, or even going backwards as you play the game.
   
   For Time Trouble Take A, the character has no control over the changes in time, that is, the setting, or some antogonist is controlling time and you have to win despite this set back.

4. Bonus rules

   There are 2 bonus rules:

   Act of Act of Recursiveness (Good)

   Clever use of recursiveness will give bonus. It could be a code thing or something in the graphics. It could even be the way you interprete a rule. If one rule says you have to save a princess, you could make a game where a princess has to save a princess.

   Senior Discount (OK)

   You can't teach an old dog new tricks! If you add Senior Citizens to your game, you can switch out ONE of the rules for a rule used in a previous speedhack.

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! :-)