Rules for the Competition

The rules are not quite as simple as the famous "One Rule" from the first competition, but I have tried to keep them relatively straightforward. Those who violate a rule once will either be issued a warning or disqualified at the discretion of the organizer. Those who violate a rule twice are disqualified. If you have any questions regarding the rules, please contact the organizer.

1. Judges must base their judgement of each game on at most the first two hours of play. If a judge is still playing a game at the end of a cumulative two hours of playing time and wishes to continue playing it, the judge must rate the game and not change that rating later before continuing play. Authors may write a game of any length they desire, but should keep this rule in mind when determining the length of their entry.
   
2. Games must not be based upon works currently under copyright unless permission is obtained from the copyright holder. You may parody established works, but you may not, for example, write a game based on Terry Pratchett's Discworld without permission. This avoids the entire issue of copyright and the ethics involved. If you do decide to obtain permission to write a derivative work, keep in mind that such a work could not later be published in a collection, as the winners of the first competition were in the Masterpieces of Infocom collection.
   
3. All entries must be freeware or public domain. Do not enter a game unless you are willing to give it away. No shareware, donorware, commercial products, etc. may be entered.
   
4. All entries must be previously unreleased at the opening of voting. If an entry has previously been circulated, it will be disqualified. If you are unsure whether your game fails to meet this rule, please ask me. Please note that this rule does not prevent you from having your game tested by a few beta-testers.
   
5. Authors of a competition entry may not discuss any of the entries in a public Internet forum during the voting period. Do not post your thoughts on your entry or anyone else's on a newsgroup or bulletin board until the deadline for voting has passed.
6. Anyone who impersonates a contest official in any capacity related to the contest will be immediately disqualified and will be banned permanently from future involvement in the competition.

These rules may be changed as required by the organizer. In addition, the organizer has final say in all disputes regarding potential loopholes in the above rules.

This year's organizer is Stephen Granade.