General information/rules - GBADEV.ORG Development competition 2004 http://2004mbit.gbadev.org - FINAL - ******** INFORMATION ******** This year we have something different in mind for our annual development competition. Instead of giving out cash and flash cartridges the aim is to manufacture a batch of 500 cartridges with the top entries (a "multi-cart"); complete with cart sticker, manual and box. The cartridges will be manufactured by an "independent party" (read: not Nintendo). The cartridges will be 32Mbit and equipped with SRAM. A size limit of 4Mbit is needed to fit enough entries on the cartridge to make it appeal to the public. With 4Mbit space reserved for intro, menu and credits this leaves 28Mbit on the cartridge for games. The top 7 games will be guaranteed to make the cartridge. Additional games MAY be considered if space permits. Spare space on the cartridge MAY also be given to the 7 guaranteed entries to allow for additional content. Use of any spare space will be handled at my [Simon] discretion. Intro, Menu, Credits, Game Cartridge Sticker-art and Boxart will be made by a 3rd party and is not part of this competition. The GBADEV.ORG development compos usually "cost" ~1000$usd in cash. The original plan was to subsidise the games so that it would be cheaper for the consumer. This meant that the games would be sold at a loss of about 1.5$usd/game. After a poll on http://forum.gbadev.org we noted that the people taking the poll would not like to see us loose money on this project. Thanks!? :=) Instead, the games will now be sold to break even, nothing more, nothing less. The prize for entrants is to have their game on a published (but unlicenced) game cartridge. Neither you or GBADEV.ORG will make ANY money on this cartridge. Tough luck! :=) After close calculations, taking in consideration import taxes, distribution costs, and the ever weaker $usd, we now believe the end-customer price will be around 14$usd. We will however do everything we can to keep costs down! ******** RULES ******** The rules are simple: You have 4Mbit (512Kbyte) to work with. This is a game only competition. Have your game ready by DECEMBER 5TH (check http://2004mbit.gbadev.org count-down clock for exact time). ALL entries must be COMPLETE and make use of music/sound effects, unless the nature of the game is one that such content is not to strive for. Games such as RPG's must have an ending. ALL content must be original. You may not use any gfx/sound that are not free to use in commercial projects. YOU are solely responsible for ensuring that your entry is legal. The developers of selected entries MUST be prepared to sign legal documents to this affect. ALL selected entries are guaranteed the use of 4.5KByte of SRAM space. Since all entries are not expected to make use of SRAM, you will probably be able to use more if needed. No unnecessary splash screens. If you MUST show a splash screen, please contact simonb[CAT]gbadev.org. We will try to place all splash screens at the start of the main game instead of at the start of each individual game (this should save space if multiple entries use the same splash screens etc). Titlescreen and intro is fine. Instructions are also OK. Even though you can include credits in your game it is not a necessary since credits for all games will also be placed in the main credits (found on the main titlescreen). Developers of entries selected to be on the cartridge must be prepared to submit all source/scripts/graphics etc necessary to compile/assemble your to the project coordinator. NO parts of your source will leave the project coordinator's computer. Your shoddy coding is safe with us! erm..nevermind (it was a joke, relax) Read "prepared", ie we might not ask you at all. Your game MUST be extensively tested (GBA/GBA SP) to ensure that "no" bugs are noticeable. You ARE allowed to send in updated versions of previously released games. The changes however must be significant & clearly noticeable. You/your team are allowed to submit a maximum of 3 games. If several of your submitted games are selected they will all be on the cartridge. And finally, have fun, and join the Reggie-lution! ******** THE DEADLINE [DECEMBER 5TH/6TH] ******** DOWN YOUR TOOLS! All entries have to be submitted via a form on gbadev.org on or before December 5th. An upload function will be available so you can upload your entry right there. Please read the post on http://2004mbit.gbadev.org with the subject "Submit section is up!" for information on how to upload your entry and what is necessary to include in your .zip file. You will also have to upload a 240x160 screenshot of your game. ******** AFTER THE DEADLINE [DECEMBER 5TH - DECEMBER 19TH] ******** Depending on the amount of games submitted, ~2 weeks will be spent on testing the games to select 7 entries that will make the final cartridge run. A few additional games will be selected as "stand-by" entries and MAY be added to the cartridge if space permits. To keep everything going smoothly and within the timeline, myself [Simon],luna_s and krom will be the only judges. This might seem odd to you but if you have hosted competitions such as this before you would know it can take a long time for some judges to give you their results. Sometimes you don't even get that... I can trust myself [Simon], luna_s and krom to be fair judges, and I hope you can too. In the event that the three of us can not agree on which entries should make the cartridge, I [Simon] will have final say. There will be no "winner" in the sense that we will not rate the selected entries. Everyone who competes is a winner in our eyes etc etc blah blah... ******** AFTER SELECTION OF GAMES (TINKERING TIME!) [DECEMBER 19TH - JANUARY 9TH] ******** Selected entries and stand-by entries will be contacted with more information and asked to sign the legal documents needed. Selected entries will work together with the project coordinator to finalize the multi-game ROM. No work is expected during the christmas holiday. You are allowed to make alterations and additions to your submitted entry. Extra space on the cartridge may be given to entries that needs it. Games not selected to be on the cartridge will be released on GBADEV.ORG if the developers have no objections. ******** AFTER MULTI-GAME ROM HAS BEEN FINALIZED [JANUARY 2005] ******** Manufacturing will begin. Boxes and manuals will be printed. Cartridge labels will be made. An online shop will be setup to handle orders. ******** Q1 2005 ******** The finished games will be sent to a few distributors. The main place to purchase these cartridges will be from a website created and maintained by GBADEV.ORG. Orders will be handled by GBADEV.ORG and then sent to the customer from the closest distributor. EXPECTED cost to consumer: ~$14usd / ~€11.50 / ~£8 (Shipping to the US and Europe included!). Fans of the GBA development scene are encouraged to buy atleast 1 game, but if you want to buy more to give/sell locally to friends and family we wont stop you hehe :) Each person/team behind a selected game will receive at least 1 finished game for free. hurray. ******** LEGAL ******** GBADEV.ORG takes full legal responsibility for the production, manufacturing and distribution of this game. YOU, the developer of a selected game, are responsible for making sure YOUR entry is legal and not using tools/libraries/names/copyrights/trademarks/other content that you are not allowed to use in this project. YOU, the developer of a selected game, MUST be prepared to sign legal documents to this affect. YOU, the developer of a selected gane, will retain ALL rights to your game and all content submitted for the competition. By submitting a game to the competition you only give us permission to include it on the competition cartridge and allow us to manufacture and ditribute upto 500 cartridges and sell them to get back our invested money. In the event that all the cartridges sell, it is not impossible that we may contact the developers of the selected games and ask if they want more games manufactured. This would only happen if all developers of the selected games agree to do this...and of course if we wanted/had the time to make it happen. NO additional cartridges will be manufactured if YOU, the developer of a selected game, do not wish to manufacture additional cartridges. The manufacturing of the cartridges will only take place if enough good games are submitted to make a quality multi-cart release. Developers of selected entries may release their entry to the public but not until the game cartridges has been sold, or 6 months after the release of the game cartridges, whichever happens first. In the unfortunate event that the cartridges can not be manufactured, all entries will be released on GBADEV.ORG if the developers have no objections to this. ******** MISC ******** Thank you for participating. Simon 2004-08-13 7:00PM GMT [First draft ready] 2004-08-12 8:00PM GMT [updated price of the final games etc] 2004-11-03 3:45PM GMT [Updated legal section mostly] 2004-12-03 6:36PM GMT [General update - FINAL]