Competition Rules

=YOYO GAMES COMPETITION RULES=

INTRODUCTION
YoYo Games regularly runs a series of game creation competitions on the website to stimulate creators to design and develop original games. The game competitions will be announced through the Glog and other channels.

THE CHALLENGE
For each competition a challenge will be formulated. This challenge will be described in the Glog. Whether a submitted game does or does not fit in the challenge will be determined by YoYo Games. Such decision cannot be appealed against. For each challenge there will be a deadline. The game must be submitted before midnight GMT of the date indicated.

THE GAME
The game you create must comply with the following rules:
 * The game must be created with Game Maker, version 7 or later (Pro or Lite).
 * The game must comply with the terms and conditions of YoYo Games as indicated on the website. For example it should be your own original work and you should own the rights to all resources used in the game.
 * The game should run through the Instant Play mechanism at the YoYo Games site.
 * The game should not change the screen resolution and should run in a window (rather than full screen).
 * The game must be submitted by an individual member, not on behalf of a team. Members may accept assistance from a team, but any prizes will go only to the submitting member.
 * A member is allowed to submit at most two games in each competition.
 * You may not submit a game that has already been submitted to another YoYo Games competition. You may submit a new version of the game, but run the risk that the judges consider it too similar to the previous version, and disqualify it.

We reserve the right to reject any entry for the competition if we feel it is inappropriate or violating the rules.

PRIZES
The prizes will be announced when the competition is started and may vary from competition to competition. Normally there are first, second, and sometimes third prizes. Payment will normally be made by PayPal. If you do NOT have a PayPal account then YoYo Games reserves the right to choose an alternative payment method. Any costs associated with the alternative method of payment will be met by the competition winner.

SUBMISSION PROCEDURE
Once your game is finished you must submit it as follows:
 * Publish your game on YoYo Games through the SHARE page. Give the game an appropriate name, description and tags.
 * As an additional tag add competitionXX where XX indicates the number of the competition. So for the first competition use competition01.
 * By adding the competition tag CompetitionXX to your game you are agreeing to abide by these rules.

CHANGING YOUR GAME
You are allowed to update your game as regularly as you wish until the submission deadline. You are not allowed to resubmit a game as a new game!

RATING GAMES
Anyone found to have rated their own game will be automatically disqualified from the competition.

Down-rating and unfairly commenting on other competitor's games is also unacceptable behavior. Anyone found doing so will - at the very least - be disqualified from the competition and may face a permanent ban from the website.

OTHER RULES
Each competition will have some specific rules that apply. These will be included in the competition announcement.

JUDGING
The submitted games will be judged by the YoYo Games staff together with some judges appointed by YoYo Games. They may take the popularity and rating for the games on the YoYo Games site into account. So you are strongly recommended to advertise your game, once published on the site, to as many people as you can, for example, using the embed mechanism on the site. Judging will be based on playability, creativity, and overall quality. All aspects of the games will be considered, especially how well it addresses the particular challenge. You do not need to provide the editable version and, hence, we will not judge the game on how it is implemented. YoYo Games will announce the winners as soon as possible after the competition entry. The final decision is at the sole discretion of YoYo Games and is not open to appeal under any circumstances.

EXCLUSIONS
Employees of YoYo Games and judges are not allowed to enter in the competition.