1. Time: The competition is from Friday 6 August 2021, 12:00 UTC to Monday 9 August 2021, 12:00 UTC. You are not allowed to write code for your entry before or after these times. All entries must be uploaded on this website before Monday 9 August 2021, 12:00 GMT.

2. Size: the entry may not be larger than 50.0 MB, zipped. This must include all source files and all assets (graphics, sound, music) needed to compile and run your entry. Compiled binaries are optional, they don't have to be included, but you may wish to provide them anyway.

3. Source: the complete source code must be included with the entry. You don't have to include the source of dependencies, such as allegro, as long as they are easily found on the web.

4. Code reuse Because reusing code is an essential hacking skill, You can re-use any code that:

You are legally able to do so (your own, GPLed, giftware, public domain or any other Free Software licence) AND
Was available and easily accessible online at least two weeks before the start of the competition This means that until two weeks before the start of the competition you may still upload your own code (e.g. initialization code, utility classes) that could come in handy during the competition.

Also, you are obliged to make clear what parts of your entry you re-used, preferably in a readme.txt that accompanies your entry.

5. Choice of game engine / framework. Contrary to previous editions, the use of Allegro is not compulsory. You may use any engine, framework or programming language, as long as you take care to make your game portable (See point 6).

6. Portability. Your entry should be trivial to port to any platform that Allegro supports (that means including Windows, Linux and Mac OS X). This means that you are not allowed to use any OS-specific features in your game (essentially you should aim to make your entry compile out of the box on all platforms, but this can be hard to realize for people who don't have access to those platforms).

7. Additional rules. There will be additional rules that are announced at Friday 6 August 2021, 12:00. These rules come in four categories: Genre Requirements, Technical requirements, Artistic requirements and Bonus rules. Skipping or ignoring some of these rules will not immediately disqualify you, but it will reduce your rating and thus drastically reduce your chances of winning

8. Teams: You may participate alone, or as a team of any size. Only one prize will be awarded per team, it's up to you to decide how you will distribute the prize amongst team members.

9. Reviewing and deciding a winner. To ensure that each entry will be reviewed, each entrant will be assigned two entries to review and six entries to rate. Awards will be assigned based on these ratings. There will be awards in the following categories:

Best overall

Best implementation of technical requirements

Best implementation of artistical requirements

Best implementation of genre requirements

10. Prizes Four distinct entrants that scored highest in one of the four categories will receive a prize. (If an entrant won in multiple categories, then they will be awarded a prize for the first category, and a runner up will receive a prize in the second category, and so on). Prizes are paid from a prize pool donated by generous community members. Winners must cooperate with the TINS organizer in order to receive the prize. For example, you must be responsive to contact requests, and you may be asked for a shipping address and other such info.

11. Dispute resolution The organizer of the TINS competition, Martijn "amarillion" van Iersel, is final arbitrator in any dispute regarding voting, reviewing, scoring, awarding prizes, and interpretation of these rules. Amarillion is himself excluded from the final ranking, and won't be eligible for prizes.