We have received notice of misinformation being spread with regards to submission rules for the Sonic Hacking Contest, more specifically, about supposed restrictions, according to which, entries have to be "never before seen" to participate at the Sonic Hacking Contest.

This PSA is issued to remind you that this is not true. Submissions to the Sonic Hacking Contest can be or can have been released outside of the Sonic Hacking Contest before. This means that, if you are submitting to the Sonic Hacking Contest, you are not restricted from submitting in these hypothetical scenarios:

• Your entry was released to the public before you even started filling in the submission form;
• At any point between the Submission Period and the Contest Period, you decide to release your entry to the general public on any platform, including other events such as SAGE.

The only realistic restrictions apply to entries that have been submit before to the Sonic Hacking Contest, and that is by mandating that, in between editions of the Sonic Hacking Contest, they are changed enough. This change is enforced with two measures:

• Repeat submissions are tested for Quality Control against previous versions present at the Sonic Hacking Contest;
• Repeat entrants are required to supply a mandatory, public facing changelog.

You can read the relevant rules here and here.

If you have doubts with regards to the rules of the Sonic Hacking Contest, contact SHC Staff, and do not rely solely on the interpretation of the rules made by potentially ill-informed members of the general public.

When there are doubts with regards to the rules of the Sonic Hacking Contest, do remember that the say of SHC Staff trumps all else.