games/competition96/submission-rules.txt

From: whizzard@uclink.berkeley.edu (Gerry Kevin Wilson)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
Subject: Updated I-F Competition Announcement
Date: 13 Apr 1996 08:32:55 GMT

--====--

      Announcing the Second Annual Text Adventure Authorship Competition
                                Administered by whizzard@uclink.berkeley.edu

                "Do as adversaries do in law-
                 Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends."
                        -William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew

        Text adventures live on.  If you want to write a text adventure like
the late great Zork or Planetfall, then this contest is for you.  All you
need is an idea, and some way to make it a game winnable in under two hours.

                                -=The Rules=-

  The text adventure you enter must be winnable in under two hours.  Judges
will be asked to rate it after playing for that long.  Please note that your
game will NOT be disqualified if it exceeds this length, but judges may not
see it in its entirety before rating it.

  The entry may be written in any programming language, including any of the
text adventure creation utilities available (such as TADS, Inform, AGT, or
Alan, to name a few.)  If your game is unplayable, then it won't receive
enough votes to be eligable for prizes.  (See Judging.)

  This year, do NOT post your entries ahead of time.  Jumping the gun is
punishable by disqualification.  Instead, you will need to send me your
entries privately, either through e-mail (as a uuencoded file) or some other
arrangement that you will have to work out with me.  The entries must be
received by September 30th, 1996.  No entries will be accepted after this
date.

  Entries will be sent by me to ftp.gmd.de on October 1st, 1996.  Only
entries uploaded by me will be eligible.

  If you want your entry to be anonymous, then leave your name off it and
email me that it's your entry.  I advise a secret command that pops up the
author and copyright message.  Anonymity is not required, and I hope to be
able to continue to do this in the future.

  Speaking of copyright, all games must be entirely your own creations.  You
may parody established works, but you may not, for example, write a game
based on Sherlock Holmes.  This avoids the entire issue of copyright and the
ethics involved.

  All entries MUST be freeware or public domain.  So don't enter a game
you've worked on for 2 years if you don't want to give it away.  No
shareware, no donorware, no commercial products, etc.  Only clear and free
games.

  Lastly, and this is a NEW rule, somewhat controversial at that.  All
entries must include some sort of walkthrough.  By this I only mean that
somewhere in the game package there must be explicit directions on how to
play the game from beginning to end, and that this info must be available to
the player from the very start of the game.  A walkthrough is fine, as is a
hint system that progresses all the way to blatant spoilers.  If you like,
you could even have an NPC take over for the PC if enough time has been
spent on a single puzzle.  I don't care how you do it, but do it.  Any entry
without something of this nature will be returned to its author, and the
author will be asked to rectify the oversight.

                              -=Judging=-

  The judging will be a 'People's Choice Awards' type deal for the most part.
Everyone is able to vote.  All you have to do is play every game that you are
able to (you are bound on your honor to play as many as possible and give
each of them an equal chance.) and then rate each game on a scale of 1 to 10,
no decimal places please.  The site to mail votes to will be announced later
on this year, but it will not be me.  I would appreciate receiving no votes,
please.

  Votes will begin to be taken on Oct. 15th, and must be in by Oct 31st.
Shortly thereafter, results will be announced, and prizes will begin to be
distributed to the winners.

  Any game that does not receive at least 10 votes on it is removed from
prize consideration.

  The winner will be the game with the highest average score.  Each winner
will have a draft pick to choose a prize of his/her choice until there are no
longer any prizes left.  Tied entrants who both select the same prize will be
decided between by a flip of the coin, the loser receiving his second choice.

  Authors and official betatesters may vote, but must head their votes with
the subject: "MISS CONGENIALITY VOTE" so that the counter is able to seperate
them.  These votes will be counted towards an author's best of show choice.
The winner will receive a copy of "The Interactive Writer's Handbook",
donated by me.

        The Prizes So Far Include:

        $75.00 cash, donated by Martin Braun.
        "Creating Adventure Games on Your Computer", by Tim Hartnell.
          Copyright 1984.  Offered anonymously.
        The original sketch of the "Path to Fortune" map, donated by
          Christopher E. Forman.
        A registered copy of "Lost New York" (which includes on-screen hints,
          a manual, and some goodies), donated by the author, Neil deMause.
        5 copies of the book: "Computer Adventures - The Secret Art", donated
          by the author, Gil Williamson.
        One free copy of "Avalon", assuming it's done by then, donated by the
          author, me, as if you didn't know.

        Cecilia Barajas of Activision (Author of Zork Nemesis) has donated
        the following items:

          A copy of "Lost Treasures of Infocom vols. 1 and 2."
          A copy of "Zork Nemesis."
          A t-shirt (either an Activision or Zork Nemesis shirt, I'm not sure
            which yet.)

        Andrew C. Plotkin (Last Year's Inform Winner) offers the awardee's
          choice of:

          A) Dinner at a (pretty) fine restaurant in the Washington, DC area,
             with me, plus hours of fine conversation on the art of
             interactive fiction or other topics as desired.

            or

          B) $20.00 cash (US), plus I'll email you some of my old posts from
             r.a.i-f. 

        Lastly, assuming that:

        1) We have at least 20 entries in the competition.  (By that, I
           mean 20 valid, on-time, non-disqualified entries.)

        2) At least 5 of the entries are done by female authors. 

        Then Christopher will also award five free registrations of "Circle
        of Armageddon", Volume 2 of "The Windhall Chronicles".

        That should do us pretty well for prizes this year.  I think there
are good odds of everyone getting at least a smaller prize.  If not, well,
I'll be thrilled to see a turn-out of over 20 or so entries.

        Thank you to all prize contributors for helping to make this year's
contest a reality.