Original en español (rules in spanish)

Scenery Beta is an international homebrew showcase, where developers and teams from around the world may show their works and projects, and so make 'em known to the Big Audience. It is aimed to those platforms on which SceneBeta.com has an active community right now (PC, PSP, NDS and Wii), and akin to the commonplace film festivals.

Sections

There will be two different sections (official, or contest section, and off-contest section) for each platform (PC, PSP, NDS y Wii). The organizers reserve the right to classify any homebrew sent as "off-contest", either due to lack of functionality (like proofs of concept), or any other likely reason, which will be always explained to the author(s).

Categories

The official section for each platform will have two categories, Games and Applications (emulators will be classified as Apps).

Awards & Prizes

For each category and platform in the official section the following prizes will be awarded, totalling an amount of 40 awards (4 platforms * 2 categories each * 5 awards each). Prizes for each one of the 8 categories total will be as follows:

• 1st Prize: 150€ + 2GB Pendrive
• 2nd Prize: 100€ + 2GB Pendrive
• 3rd Prize: 50€ + 2GB Pendrive
• 4th Prize: 2GB Pendrive
• 5th Prize: 2GB Pendrive

Which adds to a 2.400€ and 40 2-GB Pendrives total amount.

(This is how our pendrives look like)

Besides these official prizes in the contest categories, the organizers may agree to grant special, symbolic awards in the off-contest section.

How to submit your work

• All homebrews must include the Showcase starting/splah screen for its platform. (This is mandatory)
• Those homebrews presented as a novelty for Scenery Beta will have a score bonus.
• The same homebrew cannot be presented to more than one category.
• Inscription period: From the moment these rules are published until Sep, 1, 2008 at 24:00 hrs (UTC+2 timezone).
• All homebrews presented must have been started, or created, or significantly changed or developed during last natural year (12 months) before publishing these rules, or during the submitting period. Of course, you can submit a Homebrew created specially for this Showcase.
• No homebrew will be accepted if it may somehow infringe the (copy)rights of its loading platform, or use commercially branded code (that is, PSP plugins, ISO-loaders, & the like).
• No homebrew will be accepted if it goes against the basic rules of the SceneBeta.com communities, that is, under no circumstances will be accepted those of racist content, sexist, xenophobical, inciting to violence against women, or aimed exclusively for people major of legal age/age of consent (i.e., "adult content").
• The author (either a single coder or the whole team) must answer the voting form, where he/she will mark the 3 best homebrews for each category where the author has submitted any work (auto-voting is forbidden), or else the score given by other coders to his/her work won't be added to his/her final score.
• The organization reserves itself the right to mark any work submitted as an off-contest work.
• The author may specify that his/her work should be inscribed directly as an off-contest work.
• All works must be e-mailed to this address: [email protected].
• All submitted works which comply the present rules will be published in the relevant community of SceneBeta.com. By submitting the work, the author agrees to this publication.
• Works must be sent as a single compressed, attached file, in ZIP, RAR or 7Z format.
• This file will include anything needed to run the work (.dlls, &c) and cannot rely on launchers or external programs to be run (it must be an executable). That is, if it's a program written in Java, Flash o Lua, it must be packed for execution (.exe, eboot, .elf, &c, depending on the platform), and if it is a work for PC that needs libraries (which must be licensed as free to use), these must be incorporated, too.
• It is allowed to send more than one version of the same homebrew, as long as the submitting period is still open, and the version which will be voted shall be the latest one presented which complies with the present rules. Any new version shall be e-mailed again, with the same requirements.
• Along with the homebrew, the following data must be supplied:
  • Platform: either PC (and which operating system), PSP, NDS or Wii.
  • Version code for the homebrew (allowing to track its evolution).
  • Loading/installation instructions (if needed).
  • If needed, any additional file/folder structure.
  • Website of the author(s) (if he/she has one).
  • A valid e-mail address for contact.
  • If it's being presented as a novelty for Scenery Beta 2008 or not.
  • And any other addtional data that you feel necessary.

Scoring system

Once the submitting period is over, votations shall begin, and will be open until 24:00 hrs of September, 22, 2008 (UTC+2). Scores will range from 0 to 10 according to:

• User votes: 25% of final score.
• Contestant (coders/teams) votes: 50% of final score. Each contestant (either single author or team) will receive a form where he/she will choose the 3 best homebrews for each category on the platforms he/she's contesting in, not being allowed to vote for him/herself. The author has to fill this form, or else the other contestants' votes for his/her homebrew won't be added to the author's final score.
• Organization's rating: 25% of final score. The organization will assess for each work its translatability (easyness to translate to other languages), freeing the source code ("free" as in "freedom of expression", NOT "free beer"), being a Scenery Beta novelty (that is, the homebrew has been unpublished until submission to SB), and putting to good use the network capabilities of its platform. The maximum score for the organization's rating will be 10, and all the assessed aspects will have the same value. The total organization's rating will be multiplied by 0.25 and that amount added to the final score. All authors will be informed of his/her rating in detail, once the submitting period is over.

When the final results are published, the detailed score on the three ratings above for each homebrew will also be published.

Awarding of prizes

The winners list will be published on October, 1, 2008.

• Once the winners are known, the cash prizes will be cashed either by bank transfer or PayPal (winner's choice).
• The material prizes (pendrives) will be sent by registered international mail.

The Scenery Beta 2008 organization reserves the right to modify partially or totally the present rules, if there are major reasons to do so ("major reasons" being what is also called in legal terms "act of God" or "force majeure"), and always in a reasoned, well-explained way. Also, the ultimate interpretation of these rules will be that of the organization.

Official Splash Screens

• For NDS:

• For PC:

• For PSP:

• For Wii:

Here's the link to the Scenery Beta 2008 article.