Rules for ChristmasHack '05

Important dates

  • Registration phase starts December 12, 00:00 UTC.
  • Voting phase starts December 14, 00:00 UTC.
  • Main phase starts December 15, 16:00 UTC.
  • Main phase ends December 23, 16:00 UTC.
  • Downloads are made public on December 23, 17:00 UTC.

Rules

  • The main part of the contest starts at 15th Dec 2005, 16:00 GMT and ends at the same time on 23rd.
  • Each participant must register on the website.
  • After you register, you name 3 short descriptions of games that you would like to get under your christmas tree. You also provide information about the systems you are capable of running games on.
  • The descriptions you provide should be written with the time limit in mind. Also, they should be vague enough to encourage creativity.
  • Once you write a description, you are considered a participant. You can back out at any moment before the start of the main part of the contest. Once it starts, it wouldn't be nice of you to resign.
  • Each participant should:
    • post 3 descriptions of his own
    • vote on others' descriptions (preferably all of them)
    • receive an e-mail on the 15th, in which there will be three descriptions chosen by the other participant
    • code a game fitting at least one of those descriptions
    • submit it before the deadline through this site
    • receive a game somebody done for him on 23rd Dec
  • Screening process:
    • Each of your descriptions is voted on by other users, with three choices (good = 100%, so-so = 50%, bad = 0%).
    • The overall score of a description is the average of all votes on it, or 0% if no-one voted on it yet.
    • You have to have at least one description above 30% score to take part in the hack.
  • Technical requirements:
    • the game you code must use Allegro
    • you are allowed to post two ZIPs: source+data ZIP (required), and a binary ZIP (optional)
    • the source+data ZIP containing the game must be 1,000,000 bytes or less in size
    • the source+data ZIP must contain:
      • the full source and game data for your game
      • build instructions, together with links to all external libs used
    • the optional binary ZIP must be 10,000,000 bytes or less in size
    • the optional binary ZIP can contain:
      • executable(s) for the game
      • DLLs or other binary forms of the libraries used (as long as their license allows this)
      • an exact duplicate of the game data from the source ZIP
    • no other data is allowed in the binary ZIP
    • try not to use too many external libs
  • If you don't manage to finish your game, you are encouraged to sumbit what you have done anyway, together with some nice Christmas wishes and Christmas stuff to make your pair forgive you :)
  • If you agree, your submission will be made publicly available on this page some time after the hack. If you wouldn't like that, just don't click the checkbox.
  • Everybody is a winner.