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

   Ugh... Monday. (OK)

   Game must take place in office setting.
   Maybe your office is a large building with many floors or a small room. Get crazy and creative.
   
   Desks, phones, papers, cubicles are necessary for ambience or integral part of gameplay.
   

2. Technical requirements

   There is 1 technical requirement:

   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 are 2 artistic requirements:

   Give Peace a Chance (OK)

   In this uncertain world, with violence and ill feeling between nations, wouldn't it be good to spread a little love and harmony to everyone and mellow out those negative vibe merchants?
   
   Your entry should exude a message of peace, love and mutual respect. Heaven knows we could do with it right now.. If John Lennon had been alive today..what would he have put in a computer game to get the message across?

   Look Mom I can Fly (Great)

   Ground based transportation is boring. The player should be able to fly in some way or other. It doesn't have to be zooming around in a 3d space (extra kudos if it is), but the player can not be anchored to the ground at all times.

4. Bonus rules

   There is 1 bonus rule:

   Act of Illuminati (Good)

   You may opt out of one other rule if you include a picture of yourself accessible via some secret within the game itself. This may be a secret area, key combination, menu item, etc. Instructions on how to unlock the secret must be hidden within your documentation file in any way you deem fit, as long as it is realistically decipherable.

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! :-)