ScoreSpace x Alakajam! rulesContribute to this page
You will find here the detailed rules of this special competition, which involves both gamedevs and streamers in the contest!
NB. These rules may be tweaked at any time prior to the launch of the jam.
Game dev competition
Divisions
There are three divisions available to contestants:
- Solo, in which you make a whole game alone in 72 hours ;
- Team, in which any number of persons can gather to make a game in 72 hours ;
- Unranked, a more open division, useful for those not interested in the competition, or feel like its constraints are too restrictive for them.
For your game to qualify for the streamer competition, you are encouraged to make it support high scores. Leaderboards are not required, but players should be able to screenshot their scores easily.
See the What is allowed? section below for details regarding asset reuse, fixing bugs after the jam, etc.
What is allowed?
Click on a division below to read its detailed constraints.
Solo/Team divisions
- Tools: All software is allowed without restriction. It is recommended though that your game engine supports targetting either HTML5, Windows or Linux, to make sure most contestants can play it.
- Code reuse: You are allowed to use/reuse any outside library or personal code made prior to the event, or code bits found from sources like StackOverflow or blogs. You can also prepare your project by initializing the sources in advance. However, you cannot work on a game you started before the event.
- Graphical asset reuse: You must make all your graphical assets during the event, even if you opt-out of the graphics category. Derivative work of existing assets (ie. you used some existing assets but significantly transformed them) is acceptable, as long as you list the original assets in your game page for the raters to appreciate. You are also allowed to use: third-party fonts and brushes ; procedurally generated assets ; your engine's default appearance for UI elements ; pre-made game author & engine splash screens.
- Audio asset reuse: You must make your own music during the event, even if you opt-out of the audio category. However: while creating sounds yourself is encouraged (eg. with the help of sound generation tools, musical instruments, or microphones), reusing existing sound effects is tolerated. You can also reuse short samples for music (eg. drums and other sampled instruments). Reusing whole loops or full tracks is not allowed.
- Post-jam changes: From the minute the jam ends, you are not allowed to add any features, assets or contents to your jam version. However we do allow: packaging or improving the packaging ; porting to other platforms ; and fixing bugs (the definition of what is a "bug" as opposed to "balancing"/"improving" the game is blurry, just act in fairness to the other contestants). Any other change must be distributed as a separate "Post-jam version" clearly labelled as such.
Unranked division
Since there are no ratings involved, the rules are much more relaxed. While the ranked divisions are only made for video games, card & board games are allowed here. The only rules are:
- All third-party assets are allowed as long as you have the license to use them.
There are additional rules if you submit an project started before the event. These are fuzzy rules only aimed at preventing abusive self-promotion:
- You must spend a significant part of your week-end working on the game ;
- Use the game description to let people know what you did/did not make during the jam ;
- Make it easy to play the parts you worked on (eg. don't make testers play the full game to try your final boss!).
In case of doubts and mistakes: Obviously, the rules don't cover every scenario. If you learnt too late about the assets restrictions, or want to do something unclear from the rules… do what seems fair, and just be transparent about it in the game description. For the fairness of the competition, the mods may disqualify games whose rules breaches granted them an obvious advantage in terms of ratings. Now whatever happens, let's not overthink things: this is just an informal competition, and we're here to make games and have fun!
Ratings
After the jam, Solo and Team divisions will be ranked separately through community voting: any person who submitted an entry, as well as any registered streamer will be able to play, rate and comment other people's games for five days. On each game you play, you will get to rate six aspects of game making:
| Rating category | Description |
|---|---|
| Overall | How much you liked the game in general. |
| Graphics | Your appreciation of all the visual aspects of the game. This can be opted-out if you want to (e.g. text-based game). |
| Audio | Your appreciation of all the sound-related aspects of the game. This can be opted-out if you want to (e.g. silent game). |
| Gameplay | Your appreciation of the gameplay, contents & balancing. |
| Originality | How original you found the game, its art and sound. |
| Theme | How well and how interestingly the game fit to the theme. |
Unranked games won't get ratings but can expect as much plays & feedback as the others.
Awards and perks
In order to qualify for the following awards, your game must support high scores, in the forms of a visible score that can be captured as a screenshot. You must also grant permission for the tournament on your game submission page.
Three awards will be chosen by both developers who participated in the jam, and by streamers. They will be announced at the end of the ratings phase.
- The Solo Developer's Choice is the award that is given to the top rated solo division game having high scores enabled on their entry.
- The Team Developer's Choice is the award that is given to the top rated team division game having high scores enabled on their entry.
- The Streamer's Choice is the streamers favorite game in the jam, and the one they think will be fun to play on stream.
The hosts of the competition may exclude a game if supported platforms are too limited (web games are preferred), or if it is severely unbalanced.
The developers that made the 3 winners will:
- Be made an announcement video that will be uploaded to the ScoreSpace YouTube channel.
- Receive a special discord role in the ScoreSpace discord server.
- The top 3 games also get their game played and livestreamed in the second part of the jam by competing streamers!
High score competition
Everyone who wants to (including people who submitted a game) can also enter the event as streamers. If you choose to do so, you are then invited to compete for 24 hours on the three awarded games. In order to take part in the competition:
- You need to enter as a streamer on the event dashboard, and specify you Twitch channel and scheduled streams ;
- During the competition phase, you will be invited to livestream yourself playing the game ;
- For the scores to be taken in account, take screenshots of your scores and submit them the Alakajam! website.
On each game, streamers are awarded a number of points for being in the top 10, as per the table below. The streamers with the highest total points are shown on a global leaderboard throughout, and at the end we'll announce the winner and runners up!
Special case: in case you, as a streamer, end up seeing your own game qualified for the competition, it is preferred you don't submit a score to your own game.
While the official competition takes place, every person with an Alakajam! account will also be able to submit scores, and compare themselves to the streamers. They will however not be awarded points for their participation, and will not appear on the global leaderboard.