Killscreen CREATE Finalists announced

[EMcNeill]

I thought entrants were going to have to sign some sort of legal document saying they only worked on the game during the time of the jam? It wouldn't be good if they picked a winner who later couldn't claim the prize due to breach of contract. The last thing you need with something like this is a legal mess.

True. Aside from Cape Chronicles and Avner (both of which had pre-competition YouTube videos that were taken down, though evidence remains), there also seems to be some discussion on Twitter about Whispering Willows. The devs have said that they started on the concept and storyline before the competition. I'm not sure whether early concept/story stuff is considered "work" on the game, but I guess that's up to the guys running the competition.

Even for the finalist stage, there are prizes being given out, like a new dev kit. And the FAQ is pretty clear about the rule:

Can I submit a game I've already worked on, as long as it hasn't been released anywhere else?
No. In order to level the playing field, we are only accepting new work having been created between the initial CREATE announcement on January 7th and the end of the jam on January 23rd. If you're already working on a game for OUYA, perhaps try a new variation, or different take on the same theme! If you win a prize, you will be required to legally verify that this is true, so please be honest!

While the Rules say:

If a selected potential winner... cannot satisfy or comply with any of these requirements for any reason; then he/she will forfeit all rights to a Prize and Sponsor shall, in its sole and absolute discretion, select an alternate winner.

Has anyone pointed this out to the CREATE guys?

[nightlight]

Hey thanks for the concern. I had conceptualized Whispering Willows last year, but we started development when the contest started. You can actually see our first dev video and daily progress with the #OUYAcreate hashtag. We have a large team of 20 people and put a lot of work into it, so I'd hate for some bad rumors to ruin our reputation. I'm happy to clear anything up!

[nightlight]

Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, website were all started in January. According to our contact at OUYA and Killscreen "paper prototyping" is fine, just not actual development.