The 72 Hour Game Development Competition

A chapter of featherless' digital creative history.

The 72 Hour Game Development Competition (72hourgdc) was a competition that ran 8 times from July 2003 to November 2006. The competition started on specific Fridays at noon EST and ended on the following Monday at noon EST. Teams were allowed to have up to three people.

The complete rules are outlined below.

Competition dates

1. Jul 22, 2003 - Jul 28, 2003 Theme: Mindless Violence
2. Jan 02, 2004 - Jan 05, 2004 Theme: Food
3. Jun 25, 2004 - Jun 28, 2004 Theme: Pirates
4. Dec 17, 2004 - Dec 20, 2004 Theme: Customize
5. Jul 29, 2005 - Aug 01, 2005 Theme: Horror
6. Mar 24, 2006 - Mar 27, 2006 Theme: Magic
7. Jul 14, 2006 - Jul 17, 2006 Theme: Retro
8. Nov 17, 2006 - Nov 20, 2006 Theme: Magnets

Submissions

Competition #1: Mindless Violence

• BloodStalker
• Calamity
• evil-animation
• exmika
• fowl-weather
• fraction
• FryGuy
• Gustav
• HighwayHavoc
• MiggetChainsawhands
• mojo
• [MV Easter Island](https://github.com/72hourgdc-2003-july/MV Easter Island)
• mveimac
• [Nova Wings](https://github.com/72hourgdc-2003-july/Nova Wings)
• PooHillEntryTheMartian
• spaceboard
• swat-last-stand
• vietbunny

Competition #2: Food

• 72h-entry (mikz0r's entry)
• 72H_GameDev (Graupmann's entry)
• 72hour (yq713's entry)
• 72hrs-SizeMatters (bluescrn's entry
• antsmash
• Apok
• burger_uni
• Competition_Entry (nerd_boy's entry)
• CoriolisPizza
• edibles
• frootybooty
• FruitSalad
• ISF (genesisgenocide's entry)
• KebabKing
• malevolant concoction
• mSnack
• PicnicPicnic
• PizzeriaPanic
• popcornmadness
• RoboCafe
• runpizzarun
• Savior Carrot
• short_order
• SinsOfFathers
• Zooble01

Competition #3: Pirates

• 72
• AdvOutInstall
• Avast
• caplb
• cartoonpirateshowdown
• DrunkPirate
• euchmich
• NPD
• Pirate Invaders
• pirategame
• pirates
• PiratesGold_JoshuaYoshuaPegwo_
• PR
• SB_UR_SB
• treasurecove
• treasureHunters
• YARRFinal

Competition #4: Customize

• allebob
• aufsie
• buggin
• BunnyHunter
• ColdComfort
• DarkEye
• dominoes
• Endurion-Build-A-Planet
• fashionbuster
• Firecracker
• FOOGS
• GingerBreadMan
• mechmyday
• offslaught
• robocalypse
• Roidian
• schpace
• Skalle_-_Radar_Defense
• SpaceTravellers
• TheCantinaParty
• TwelveDays
• vx-roboarena
• wands
• Yellowmind

Competition #5: Horror

• DarkZone
• dotd
• HathSinned-GDGuys
• HigglebothamAndTheHouseOfHorrors
• In the Shadows
• jacksteele
• Nanostrain
• skullz
• ToHellWithJohnny
• UhohTheresaZombie-GDGuysSpoof
• zombieairassault

Competition #6: Magic

• 72HGDC
• bunnies
• curses
• evilness
• game
• Hunger Strike!
• Tard-trio
• Team RedRaptor
• WitchingHour
• wizard

Competition #7: Retro

• Atlantis
• BlueBerry_Gravity_Final
• bomber
• duel
• emo_kid_kills_zombies
• escape_vector
• Labrynth
• metal
• raceCar3
• RagTime Racing!
• retro
• retroball
• retroracer
• retroracers
• s_and_c
• SteampunkPiratePanic-Latest
• Team Uberflieger - Airport Panic
• team_loosers_Bubble_CuckOLDry
• teltnuag-linux
• The Morman's Adventure
• Wiering
• wiznut_7
• Yum Yum
• Zombie Theater

Rules announcement

Originally posted June 3, 2006. View on the Wayback Machine.

Introduction

The 72 Hour Game Development competition is an event to inspire rapid game development with an emphasis on design and fun. The general premise is this: At the start of the 72 hour period, a pre-determined theme is revealed. Teams collaborate to make the best game they can following that theme with only 72 hours to release something.

Goals

The major goal of the contest is to have fun. Many contestants will not finish their product within the allotted time, but they are still encouraged to show off their work.

Rules

• Teams will be no larger than 3 people.

• Participants are responsible for finding their own team-mates.

• All assets (source code, art, sound, data, etc) must be made within the 72 hour time limit. No pre-existing code, stock art, or stock sound may be used. There are few exceptions, which are all mentioned in this document.

• Sound creators such as Fruity Loops or Cool Edit are permitted. The custom sounds they come with are allowed. Using tutorial tracks or premade songs from these programs is not allowed.

• Any freely available libraries used for sound, graphics, or input are allowed - this includes DirectX, SDL, OpenGL, Allegro, PyGame, and others. This also includes smaller libraries, so long as they are freely available to the public before the competition begins.

• Pre-written game engines/frameworks are NOT allowed. This includes Torque, Quake 3, Popcap, etc. This also includes libraries outside the realm of sound, graphics, and input. For instance, libraries that handle gameplay or physics are not allowed.

• Code snippets obtained from large sources such as the Microsoft MSDN libraries or the DirectX SDK is allowed. Also, small code snippets within your own personal library are permitted, so long as they only encapsulate basic functionality such as texture loading or window creation. Use appropriate judgement for this. Something which loads an image is fine, but something that manages all the sprites on the screen is not.

• MODs are not permitted. This does not mean you can't use the MOD file format - this means that you can't submit a modification of Half-Life, Unreal Tournament, or other such modifiable games as your entry.

• Game makers are allowed.

• The game can be developed with any language for any platform - Windows, Mac, Linux, Cell-Phone, GBA, etc. However, keep in mind that the judges may not have the platform and may therefore not be able to judge the game. A Cell-Phone or GBA emulator is easy to come by, but OS X isn't.

• Everything must be submitted by the time the 72 hour deadline closes. NO EXCEPTIONS. Games may be submitted before the deadline, and they may be resubmitted at any time during the contest. However, once the deadline is over, the contest is over. Everything required to play the game must be included - this includes .dlls and setup files. Please don't make the installation inordinantly difficult.

• Source code is not required to be sent this time around, but if people are suspected of using old engines/code that they did or didn't create, this may change in future contests.

• There is to be no copyright infringement of any sort.

• Games MUST be distributed in a or .rar file. No installers.

Rationale Behind the Rules

• The rules are not intended to stifle creativity. They are intended to level the playing field.

• The reason game makers are allowed is so that much of the art community is not left out of the competition. It has been shown that the change in quality from a programmed game to a game made with a game creator is not all that great.

• Most of the source code rules are there so that everyone starts off with the same opportunities. It's not fair that one group may start with a pre-made fully 3D engine while another group starts out with nothing. However, it's also unrealistic to expect everyone to retype grunt code they've seen a million times that can be found in the DirectX SDK.

• MODs are not permitted simply because they may require a commercial game to play. The contest does not support piracy, and the judges will never be encouraged to pirate software to get a game to work.

• After much consideration, pre-made frameworks/engines have been disallowed. This includes things like Torque or the Quake engine. They simply violate the spirit of the competition.

• Installers are not allowed simply because it makes managing all the final entries a mess. We don't care how you distribute your game on your own time, but we would like a zip file.

The New Competition System

There have been numerous changes to the way the competition works internally. Though most of the rules are the same, the entire system is now automated by a custom-built script built right in to the message board.

There are 5 main stages to each competition:

1. Theme suggestion

• Themes are thrown in to a general pool of themes as people suggest them.

• 20 themes are chosen from this pool to move on to Tier 1 voting

2. Tier 1 voting

• This stage marks the beginning of the competition's theme-selection.

• Each user gets one vote for a theme and must vote via the link in the top of the forums.

• The top 5 themes from Tier 1 voting move on to Tier 2 voting.

3. Tier 2 voting

• Voting now commences on the 5 highest-rated themes.

• The best theme voted on will be chosen as the competition's theme and is decided the second the competition starts.

4. The Competition

• Your team now has 72 hours to create the game based upon the theme selected from Tier 2 voting.

• Make sure to test the submission process at some point before the end of the competition (give yourself plenty of time to upload your entry) or you may not make the deadline.

• Note that there are no exceptions to this rule so you must make sure your entry is uploaded before the competition's timer runs out.

5. Judging

• This stage allows every user to give a rating to every entry. You are also allowed to leave a short critique which the team (and only that team) will be able to read at the end of the judging process.

6. Finally

• The winners are chosen amongst each area and the overall winner will be announced in the main forums and on the main page.

FAQ

Q: 72 hours? That's not enough to make a full game!

A: Actually, that's more than enough to make a full game even with one person. The concept has been tested in other competitions. Check www.ludumdare.com for proof. You may have to sacrifice a bit of sleep, but what true game developer hasn't done that?

Q: How can I be sure people aren't shafting me?

A: In reality, you can't. We're going on an honors system here - please don't cheat. If you are caught cheating, your entry will be immediately disqualified.

Q: What should my game focus on?

A: The game should focus the most on design/fun. Good graphics and sound are great and will help considerably in the scoring, but if the game isn't fun then you have no hope.

License

This repository and its contents are licensed under CC BY 2.0.

A chapter of featherless' digital creative history.