Competition Rules

General rules for the creative competitions at The Gathering

These rules apply to all the creative competitions, unless explicitly exempted in the rules for a specific compo.

These rules are available in both English and Norwegian. In case of inconsistencies, the English version will take precedence.

To participate in a competition, an entry must adhere to both the general competition rules and the individual rules of that particular competition.

1. Right to participate

   All participants with valid tickets (regardless of type) to this year's The Gathering and current members of The Gathering crew are allowed to participate in the creative competitions.

   We do not allow remote entries. This means you have to attend The Gathering in order to participate in the competitions.

   An entry in a competition can be made by an individual or a group. If the entry is made by a group, at least one of the group members must hold a valid ticket or be a crew member at The Gathering.

2. Number of submissions per person

   A person or group is not allowed to submit more than one entry per competition, unless the rules for a particular competition explicitly allows this.

   If you are participating in a competition as part of a group, you may not submit an additional individual entry.

3. Minimum amount of entries

   A competition will be held if we receive three (3) or more entries for that competition. With fewer entries, the compo will be merged with a similar competition or cancelled.

   In case of a cancelled competition, submitted entries will not be released. This means that you are free to submit such entries to competitions at other parties.

4. Hand-in

   Unless stated otherwise in the compo specific rules, you can start working on your entry at any time; you don’t have to make it during the party.

   All entries must be registered and delivered through the web-based compo system.

   We can not take responsibility for any entries that are not registered in the compo system before the deadline.

   More info about the compo system will be published later.

   All entries, unless explicitly stated otherwise in the individual competition rules, shall be delivered in a ZIP or RAR archive containing the following:

   • The entry itself
   • Documentation/development snapshots as stated in the rules for the specific competition.
   • A text file (.txt) containing contact information and any extra information about your entry.

5. Deadlines

   Entries must be handed in before the compo specific deadline. If you miss the deadline, we will refuse your entry.

   You are allowed to submit your entry before the deadline. This will give us time to contact you should there be any problems. If you hand in your entry before the deadline, you will still be able to update or modify it until the deadline.

6. Soft deadlines

   Some compos have soft deadlines in addition to the regular deadlines. A soft deadline means that your entry must be registered in the compo system before this time, together with a working copy of the entry.

   You are allowed to update your entry by uploading new versions until the final deadline. The latest working version of your entry uploaded before the hard deadline will be used as your actual entry.

7. Disqualification

   We reserve the right to disqualify or refuse to accept any entry for any reason we see fit.

   If an entry breaks the general rules and/or the individual rules of the specific compo, it will be disqualified.

   In addition, we will not accept entries that can be qualified as any of the following:

   • Contains any sort of illegal or offensive content, including, but not limited to extreme political content, racist content, pornography, violence, abuse towards groups or single persons, slander or other things generally considered bad taste.
   • Contains copyrighted material used without permission from the copyright holder(s).
   • Contains malicious code or does not work on the compo machine.
   • Contains or displays particularly unpleasant sound or image.
   • Is particularly bad, boring or unpleasant.
   • Does not demonstrate a significant amount of creativity or effort.

   If your contribution is not accepted, or is disqualified, it will not be released publicly. This means you will be free to release it another party, although we might not recommend it.

8. Previously released entries

   Entries that are previously released cannot enter a competition. However, your entry can be partly based on previously released material; re-using code, samples, textures and similar is allowed, as long as your entry contains a significant amount of new material.

   By "previously released" we mean:

   • Made available for anyone to download from a public web page or similar.
   • Entered a competition at a previous party.
   • Been sold or used commercially.

   By "previously released" we do NOT mean:

   • Sending or copying your entry to a select group of friends or associates.
   • Previously released entries that are re-worked or remixed significantly.

   The Creativia Crew will decide which category an entry falls under, and exercise these rules using common sense.

9. Jury

   Some compos have a jury in addition to or instead of a public vote. If this applies to a competition, it will be mentioned in the individual rules for that competition. Each jury will consist of members selected by the Creativia crew, and jury members will have relevant experience in the competitions they will be judging.

   Attempts to influence the decision of the jury will lead to disqualification.

   Jury members are not allowed to participate in any of the competitions they are judging.

   Pre-selection

   If necessary, a pre-selection will be done to decide which entries will be shown in each compo.

   Entries that are not shown can not be voted for.

   The decision to exclude any entries is final and not open for appeals.

   Voting

   In some compos the winners will be decided by a combination of jury votes and a popular vote. In these compos, the jury vote will count as 1/3 of the total vote count, while the popular vote counts as 2/3.

10. Competition Shows

    The competition shows will be executed as follows:

    • The start of the compo is announced from the stage no later than 10 minutes prior to the screening of the first entry. The schedule will also be available on the gathering.org web pages during the party.
    • The entries are shown or played back one at a time, in their full length, or until the maximum playing time for each entry is reached. The maximum playing time is stated in the compo specific rules.
    • If an entry looks or sounds in a way that is considered unpleasant to the audience, we reserve the right to terminate an entry at an earlier point, or play it at a volume that is not pain-inducing.
    • The name of the entry and the participant or group will be announced before and after each entry.
    • In certain graphics compos three work in progress images from the creation of the entry will be shown before the end result.
    • The projector will display the entries in full HD (1080p), keep this in mind when creating your entry!

11. Publication of entries

    The Gathering reserves a non-exclusive right to publish all entries participating in the Creative competitions for download on the Internet, and on any other media we see fit.

    All entries that get qualified for any competition will also be uploaded to ftp.gathering.org. When uploading entries to ftp.gathering.org, we will upload all submitted archives in their entirety. Therefore, please do not include any private information in your archive.

    By submitting an entry to the competitions at The Gathering, you give us the right to publish your contribution as described here.

12. Disclaimer

    We reserve the right to change or adjust the rules as necessary. If so, the rules will be updated on this website. Every participant is responsible for making sure that the entries submitted are compliant with both the general rules and the specific rules of the competitions they are entering.