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

   Sandbox (OK)

   The game must not have any apparent objective, but supply the player with tools achieve the objective.

2. Technical requirements

   There are 2 technical requirements:

   Picasso (OK)

   The player must control the game completely or partially by drawing directly on the screen with the mouse, changing the playing field, adding obstacles, bombs, paths, jelly or whatever the game theme requires. Extra kudos for a toolbar with different drawing tools.

   Variable gravity (Great)

   The gravity in your game cannot be constant. (This implies that at least one object in your game must be under the influence of gravity).

3. Artistic requirements

   There are 2 artistic requirements:

   Show no Humans (Good)

   In most games you are going to see a human on the screen. Having a human to control, having humans as your enemies, or viewing cut-scenes with humans in them greatly enhances the immersivness of your game. Your challenge is to do without visually representing humans entirely. You can still get text or audio communication from a human or have their existacne implied in some non visual form.
   
   Extra kudos if you go without using the humanoid form in the entire game. That is none of your characters walk upright on two legs, have two arms, and a head. This includes but is not limited to gundam type robots, anthropomorphic animals, or aliens that look just like us only with pointy ears and antenna.

   Big and Small (Excellent)

   Your design should feature the contrast between big and small things. For example, ants and elephants, pebbles and mountains, etc.

4. Bonus rules

   There are 2 bonus rules:

   Act of Sagan (OK)

   If your game exposes an aspect of science in a comprehensive, positive and (if possible) poetic way, you may opt out of one of the other rules.

   Act of IP (OK)

   You may opt out of one other rule if you choose to implement networking into your entry.

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! :-)