Let’s imagine I wanna enter a game in the IFComp.
Let’s imagine I’ve published (in this forums, maybe) a coupla jpgs with some graphics. A fake postcard, let’s say.
Am I allowed to bundle that same postcard in the feelies for the IFComp game? Or is it against the law?
Maybe the “original material” just is about the game…
I think this is quite an easy question to answer: it’s completely fine to bundle in pre-existing multimedia assets. Looking at the rules for authors: 1 and 2 don’t apply because you own the copyright for those pre-existing images, 3, 5, and 6 aren’t relevant to the topic at hand. 4 requires that the entry be unreleased before play and this criterion is met, as the game is unreleased beforehand. Similarly, it’d be completely legitimate if I wanted to use images from my old webcomic as graphics in an ifcomp game, or voice over from a pre-existing sound recording etc.
(You want to include your Monarch postcard in a sequel game, huh?)
Even more. There is at least one iconic object I want to show(-off) just now.
“Showing off” seems like a violation of the spirit of rules 4 and 5, especially if you are developing this material today for your IFComp entry. These rules are in place so as to avoid a situation where only “show offs” win the competition. (It’s the mechanism to prevent the mess we had around XYZZY this year.)
Showing off your art is just as likely to influence voting as showing off a transcript of your game. (Which is not very likely in either case, in my opinion.)
In the worst case: imagine you win IFComp, and then people start saying: “Wait a minute! James only won because he distributed promotional material in advance of the competition! I could have won, too, if only I had made teasers.”
You are damn right. It’s a teaser. I feel it is against the law.
(post made elsewhere removed.)
You’ll see it in IFComp, if I dare enter it again [emote]:)[/emote]
I think the best thing to do would be to ask Stephen Granade on whether you can or not as his word overrides the IFComp rules on borderline cases.
Yeah but my ethos ovverides even Stephen. [emote]:)[/emote]
I’ll ask anyway.
A data point: Victor Gijsbers wrote a series of blog posts on the development of Kekerkruip before submitting it to the Comp. They arguably acted as teasers – I know I thought, “aha! I’ve been hearing all about this” when I opened the Comp download and saw Kerkerkruip there, and I’m sure I wasn’t alone – but I don’t think anyone thought it was unfair or morally questionable. Nobody was vocal about it, at least.