The Rules

1. Genre requirements

   The Rule-O-Matic has decided that this SpeedHack is going to be a racing game. How the racing game is defined is down to the entrant, but it should be easily justifiable with an element of racing in the game play.

2. Technical requirements

   There are two technical requirements:

   Slaps and Bennies

   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.

   International Support

   The program should be implemented such that another country other than his/her own can play the game through a selectable option within the program itself. This may require in-game instructions that are readable in the language used in that country for example. Once the foreign country option is selected, all relevant graphics and text should be set to that country.

   Hints : Minimal text or icons can reduce the effort required. Consider how commercial computer games handle international support. English can be a foreign language. Dialects of English around the world can be almost foreign, if you get all the slang included. There are several translation tools available which can give a rough idea about a possible translation for your game. If all else fails, You could offer to swap translating of game texts with someone else and do each others translations :)

3. Artistic requirements

   There is one artistic requirement:

   Stressed

   The world is a haven of stress, and we all need to relax. Include as part of your entry some stress relieving music or sounds. Light jazz, gamelan, New age floaty music, chilled dancy stuff. Providing that all the audio you include induces a sensation of tranquility, the type of music is not important. Any sounds you supply should also be tranquil..birdsong, insects, lapping water or chimes are all good examples.

   It should fit with the design of the game. So your game design should probably fit the audio rather that the other way around.

4. Bonus rules

   There is one bonus rule:

   Act of Dog

   The Act of Dog is designed as a get-out clause for not implementing one or more of the requirements - providing that the entrant can come up with a extremely good explanation for not doing so. And when I mean good, I'm talking watertight. If I can find a way through it, then I will.

   Lame excuses will be not be accepted, and may result in public embarrassment for the entrant concerned. Successful attempts at 'social engineering' will give you a waiver. All 'Acts of Dog' must be negotiated with me via Email before the entry is submitted on Monday morning.

   Humour (of all grades) may be employed in your argument. Other techniques (underhand or otherwise) will have varying levels of success. Send all petitions to arron@ashutt.demon.co.uk with good reasons, bribes, incriminating evidence and pitiful pleading. Judgement will be as swift as the organiser sees fit.

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 21st June 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 4.0 (standard installation) installed. You do not need to supply one. 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 .plan update page will be available. This is easier for me (as it lessens the amount of work for me). 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! :-)

   Any other questions? Send mail to arron@ashutt.demon.co.uk and keep working! I'll get back to you as soon as I can.. :-)