Submission Guidelines

The guidelines below are called guidelines for a reason. Exceptions may apply. If you’re unsure about anything, feel free to contact anyone from the scheduling-team in discord.

Oengus is an online tool we use for our submissions. For more info on how to use it and our recommendations on submitting using the tool, make sure to check out the guide here (click)

Music games are no longer allowed due to risk of copyright strikes. All games with licenced music (like GTA series) are only allowed if the soundtrack can be muted in game or removed by patch.

Video

A run submitted will always require a video done by the person submitting.

  • Exceptions can be made on a case-by-case basis
    • Examples include, but are not limited to:
      • Grandfathered times (dead VoD)
      • Newer games (Recent release with no complete route)

A submission video does not necessarily need to be a PB or a commentated run. A showcase of possible commentary can contribute to the opinion of the selection committee. Submitting a VOD that has been taken at another speedrunning event is also allowed.

Please make sure that your video is available to everyone i.e. no paywalls, private videos etc.

If you need to focus a lot during your run and/or have difficulty providing (a good amount of) interesting commentary, please consider arranging a co-commentator. Having a co-commentator might positively influence the reception of your submission. Please do make sure to mention the availability of a co-com in the Oengus submission.

Estimate

While submitting your run, you’ll be asked to give an estimate based on how long the run would take to perform. This estimate has to follow the following guidelines:

The estimate is checked using the submission video; this video should not be slower than the submitted estimate. Additionally we go by the principle “No vid(eo), no did”. Keep in mind that the estimate may be lowered closer to the event, as long as you can prove that you are capable of finishing a run under estimate.

Your personal best has to be faster than your estimate.

Should the submitted run not have a time faster than the estimate, make sure to show evidence of a time faster than said estimate.

Your estimate should include the waiting on credits to roll if needed. Please put information about this in your category description.

We recommend doing the intro/outro and shoutouts while the timer is running. But if you need some extra time for this(for example your run is less than 5 min or heavy on explanations of tricks at the start) then take this in account for your estimate. Don’t forget to mention this in your category description should this be the case.

Make sure your estimate is based on RTA instead of IGT. This is due to the marathon using the RTA timing method for the runs showcased.

You are allowed to adjust your estimate up to 1 week prior to the event (1 month in case of Annual events). This includes both estimates going down and/or up and also counts for time spent on incentives. In case significant changes to the run occur after the adjustment period, feel free to notify the scheduling team.

PG-13

Games that are not PG13 rated aren’t rejected by default. These will be reviewed by the scheduling team on a case-by-case basis.

Games with mature language or small amounts of gore are allowed, as long as the runner consciously handles the situation, examples include:

  • Never pointing out the language, don’t be the guy that lets everyone know that a character said something unfit for children.
  • Talking over it.
  • Turning off potential subtitles.
  • Letting the tech/audio crew know they need to mute a cutscene.
  • Any other things you, the runner, can come up with, make it entertaining.

Games with high amounts of (unskippable) gore are never allowed in.

Games with explicit (unskippable) sexual content will be avoided as much as possible. Exceptions can be made on a case-by-case basis.

Incentives

Please specify the duration of an incentive, if submitted. Please specify this time as added time to the submitted run.

Hardware

You are responsible to arrange the required hardware to perform the submitted run.

In case of PC games you will be asked either to install the game beforehand on the runner PC or bring your own PC. You are encouraged to take your own peripherals, but we will also have a mouse+keyboard in case of emergency/problems.

Runs on emulators are not disallowed, but we do have a few guidelines regarding these:

  • Official titles should always be played on real hardware. (Flash carts, SNES classic, VC inject, console emulators etc. are alright as long as it's on official hardware).
  • Games that do not have an official release (romhacks, randomizers, etc.) should always tried to be played on real hardware if it doesn't make the game unplayable. Whenever this is not possible, emulator is allowed.
  • The use of an emulator always needs to be communicated with the scheduling team.
  • The leaderboards must allow emulator runs.

The games committee & scheduling team has the right to accept or reject any game on any basis

If any questions regarding run acceptance and/or rejection arise, feel free to contact the scheduling team.

last update: Nov 12, 2020

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