We are go!

Well, I guess after 4 months of hard slog on behalf of the RR administration team and the vast generosity of the sponsors it’s time to unleash the rules and say “The Competition Is Go”.

It’s been a long haul all told for us, the team, but it’s time to hand over the baton to you, the good people of the internet to see what you can come up with.

We’ve got six categories for you to choose to enter. You can only enter one game per category, amended or edited versions of the same game will see your entry be disqualified so please, please, please, make sure you choose carefully and correctly – it’d be a shame to see any hard work go to waste over such a silly mistake. If you want to enter more than one category, then you’ve got to create more than one game. It’s that simple really. Of course, there’s prizes for every single category. But that’s not all…

Naturally, every single entry goes into the Grand Prize Competition where you have the chance to win yourself the gaming laptop of the gods amongst many other prizes.

We’re really hoping that with a mixture of fine prizes and lots of scope for different entries this year will see the biggest and best haul of games for a competition ever.

Now, we don’t do these things for random reasons. One of the biggest reasons we opted to do this whole competition thing again was only if we could actually do some good in the world. To this end, with the fine assistance of the wonderful Barrie Ellis of One Switch we’re trying to raise some games for a fantastic cause, this year it’s for Special Effect and their Games For Helen project. You can read more about Special Effect and Games For Helen over on their homepage. And yes, we have very deliberately punted the Pandora into this category to bribe folks into making games for it. We’re that shallow.

That’s not to say we want you to neglect the other categories, far from it. We’ve tried to balance out each category prize with roughly the same value of prizes, from excellent game development kits to cold hard cash, whichever you choose to run for a punt in you can be assured of coming out with something nice as a winner. And yes, you can win more than once…

Oh, and the judges prizes are back. Each judge has a bunch of prizes that they can offer up at the end of the competition for anything that impresses them during a game so there’s always a chance to shine. Oh yeah, that and anyone coming in with a score over the 50% mark gets a free game too.

I guess at this point you’ll be needing some links to help you get around. So here we go:

The Categories. I’d start here so you’ve got an idea of what we’re expecting and to see if there’s something that lights your spark and makes you think “yeah, I could do that”

The Rules. Because you don’t want to be caught out by not complying with the rules.

The Judges. As well as listing a few of the individual judges likes and dislikes, you can also find out the system specs and systems owned by the judges.

The Prizes. Because we all want to know what we can win.

And finally, the competition forum. Feel free to nip on over to announce your game, discuss what’s going on with the competition, see what other people are up to.

Although with the forum comes great responsibility. If you’ve got a question, please check that the answer isn’t clarified in the categories or the rules. We’ve tried to cover as much as possible, but I have no doubt there’ll be something we’ve missed. There always is. One small note though, if you’re going to have a whinge or a moan about something being unfair, well, tough really. You don’t have to enter if you don’t like the rules and it is very much “our competition, our rules” and no amount of moaning or complaining at the judges and organisers will change their minds. I really shouldn’t even need to point this out, but there’s always someone who can’t help themselves year in or year out. Putting it bluntly, the rules are set in stone, the organisers opinions are set in stone, shouting, swearing or cursing won’t change a damn thing so don’t waste your breath and make things more uncomfortable or stressful than they already are for people during competition times. In short: play nicely please folks.

With that said, may I wish all the entrants the very best of luck and let’s rip! Let’s make this the best competition ever.