Please note that these rules can be changed, added to, or removed from at any time. We will notify you in case that happens, by pushing a major announcement through the home page, our Discord server, and our Social Media accounts.
1. Your entry must be based on an existing ROM or game tied to the Sonic The Hedgehog franchise. Homebrew submissions are not accepted.
Hack of Super Mario 64 converting it into a Sonic game.
Custom game engine with imported Sonic game assets.
Hack of a Sonic game turning it into a non-Sonic game.
Hack of a Sonic game introducing new features/content to the game.
Starting this year, for the ROM Hack category only, we will grant additional leniency for Homebrew software that imports significant enough amounts of code from official Sonic games. For more details, please see the "ROM Hack"-specific rules section below.
Tech demos of console to PC/console conversions are acceptable if based on an existing game and/or disassembly.
Earlier this year, we made a poll considering further additions, in the form of Fan games, entries based on Non-Sonic games, and the likes. After evaluating the public’s response, we have decided not to go through with them. We suggest submitting fan games and other non-Sonic mod material to other fan game events, such as SAGE, and the Chao Games Showcase!
Exceptions
Mods based on Sonic 3: Angel Island Revisited can be submitted to the Modern 2D category (Judged and Unjudged).
Mods based on Sonic 1 Forever and Sonic 2 Absolute can be submitted to the Modern 2D category (Judged and Unjudged).
Mods based on Unleashed Recompiled can be submitted to the 3D category (Judged and Unjudged).
Other exceptions can be discussed and arranged with the Judges, and will be announced accordingly if enacted.
2. All entries must be playable and cannot prevent judges from playing them if they have been uploaded. Judges have the right to look at your incomplete work if you have submitted it. However, Judges will not allocate trophies based on any incomplete builds, only the last build submitted for the completed entry.
3. High effort joke/meme entries are welcome for participation at the Sonic Hacking Contest. However, these may be subject to unique evaluation from the Judges. Please keep the Quality Control criteria in mind.
1. You may submit any given number of entries, provided you follow the below limits:
Judged Entries (Individual): 3 per user
Judged Entries (Teams): Unlimited
Unjudged Entries: Unlimited
2. Your entry must include in-game media such as screenshots and videos. We believe it is the entrant’s job to highlight the best points of their entry through such media, so, unless otherwise stated, Staff will not be making these for you.
3. All submissions must be completed within the website. Potential submissions sent in through other means will not be considered.
4. You must inform what has been changed or explicitly what has not. This is important, and in place to ensure that your entry is evaluated based on its strengths.
Example: A level design entry featuring only some changed levels would only be evaluated based on the changes made to said levels.
This rule especially applies to repeat submitters: Entries that have been previously submitted to the Contest must include a public-facing changelog comparing changes since your last release to the Contest, ensuring that those who are only interested in the new content may choose to play that. Leeway may be given to entries where changes are extensive and immediately apparent.
Repeat Entries that include a changelog in private spaces (such as the Media Panel and Judge notes) will have the changelog moved to the Entry description. Repeat Entries that fail to include one at all may be taken down at the discretion of the Judges.
5. Repeat submissions will need to undergo additional Quality Control criteria to ensure that enough changes have been made since their last submission to the Contest. Straight or nearly unchanged rereleases will not be allowed. For more information, please read the Quality Control page.
Depending on your category of submission, additional rules or exceptions may apply. Please read the sections below depending on where you wish to submit.
Regarding updates and open source entries
In-development open source entries may continue development as normal, and even publish commits featuring updated content to their repositories, provided the published material does not appear in release builds during the period in which updates are restricted. This includes making use of features equivalent to Github's “Releases” tab.
Entrants are allowed and welcome to directly link to the source code of their entry.
Regarding Sonic Clean Engine
Entries based on the open source Sonic Clean Engine by Red Miso Studios are allowed to participate at the Sonic Hacking Contest as Judged and Unjudged entries. This includes derivative Sonic 1 in Sonic 3, as well as any derivative for which the entrant may have received permission for creating a hack out of.
All entries based on Sonic Clean Engine and its derivatives must be submitted as entries of “Sonic (3) & Knuckles (MD/Genesis)”. For the purposes of Quality Control, we will evaluate the changes made starting from the chosen derivative.
Regarding Sonic Advance 2
Entries based on the fan-made Sonic Advance 2 decompilation may be submitted to the ROM hack category only if a functional Game Boy Advance version can be distributed. Unfortunately, we can not currently accept Sonic Advance 2 entries for any other platform, but, as per the above exception, entrants are allowed to link to a repository containing the source code of their entry, may they wish to do so.
Regarding Homebrew Software
Throughout most of the Sonic ROM Hacking scene's history, valid entries have almost always started development from a disassembly known to have been started from a Sonic game. The historical stance was that homebrew ROMs were not allowed participation, even if they imported assets or code from existing Sonic games.
However, with time, the Mega Drive development scene especially has gained a level of expertise such that a Sonic disassembly can be edited to an extent so massive that the line between “ROM Hack” and “Homebrew” is ever more blurred.
With recent developments in account, it is deemed unfair that entries that begin development from a blank slate and import significant portions of engine material from a Sonic game are barred, when applying the same modifications, but in reverse process, to an existing Sonic ROM Hack would be permitted.
For this reason, starting this year, we have made the decision to exercise added leniency for those pieces of Homebrew software that also include significant portions of Sonic game engine logic.
Please do keep in mind that this is still the Sonic Hacking Contest, and, as such, our primary target does not fully encompass Homebrew development, so we do have to draw a line somewhere. Unfortunately, due to the inexistence of a proper ceiling, it is impossible for us to draw a hard line, so a degree of discretionality will be necessary.
As a general rule of thumb, when it comes to Homebrew/ROM Hack hybrids, we will view its fitness in accordance to these three points:
- Does the entry rely on code or fundamentally similar systems to a base game?
- Does the entry target the same hardware as the base games from which it pulls code or logic for its underlying systems?
- Is the gameplay/genre the same as or sufficiently similar to/derived from a base game's gameplay/genre?
If the entry follows at least 2 of these 3 points, your game is most likely eligible for entry. If not, submission eligibility is at the discretion of our Staff.
Do not include unmodified game files with your entry upload unless strictly required for the game to run. If your entry requires files from the base game they will already be there. There is no need to duplicate them.
Regarding RSDK entries
Entries based on official Sonic games executable on the RSDK decompilations may be submitted as mods to be run by the respective mod loaders.
Mods that require their own modified implementation of RSDK may submit as Judged entries, so long as the binary is distributed as part of the entry. This includes 3rd party forks, if they've been granted permission for usage. When it comes to 3rd party forks, the lack of a binary will result in the entry being moved to Unjudged.
Do not include unmodified game files with your entry upload unless strictly required for the game to run. If your entry requires files from the base game they will already be there. There is no need to duplicate them.
To ensure fair competition and proper enforcement of deadlines, Judged entries will have to limit releases to updates in the period spanning from the end of the Submission Deadline to the end of Community Voting. Ideally, in that span of time, you should not attempt to release any update to your entry.
The consequences that follow depend on these two factors:
- The substance of the content released with the update;
- Where and how the update was released.
Do not attempt to use SHC controlled platforms (such as the website's comments sections, the Discord server, or our Social Media accounts) to promote updated builds in the above mentioned period of time. During that time, you're also forbidden from pushing updates through the various Mod Managers' Mod Update functionality. Failure to comply with these specific conditions will result in immediate disqualification.
In the event a substantial update (such as an update that adds game content) is released through other means, and SHC Staff receives notice of it, we may ask you to take down your update in the offending platform. Failure to cooperate will result in your entry's disqualification, meaning that you will not be eligible for awards.
In the event a non-substantial update (such as an update that fixes glitches, or removes SHC branding from non-SHC releases) is released outside of those platforms, SHC Staff may, at their discretion, choose to not take action on the entry. If said update only exists to fix game-breaking errors, or to make corrections to the in-game credits, let us know! We will gladly update the SHC entry's listing to host the updated build!
It is up to SHC Staff to determine whether an update is substantial or not. If we do, we will reach out to the entrant (or one of the team’s representatives) via known methods of contact, or, in absence, via the email address you used to register your SHC user account.
Some exceptions may apply. Please read the category-specific rules above for further information.
Any deliberate attempt to redirect the general public to unauthorized updated builds, and away from the Sonic Hacking Contest, during the above mentioned period, may be treated in violation of the Entrants' Code of Conduct, and result in even harsher consequences.
This section does not apply in any way to Unjudged entries, who may release offsite updates whenever and however they wish.
1. All work used from external sources/contributors (sprites, VGM conversions, etc) must be credited. Entries found with stolen and/or uncredited content will not be tolerated. If anyone suspects an entry to have stolen and/or uncredited content either flag the entry or contact staff as soon as possible.
2. If you have used asset collections such as music packs from the Internet, please be wary that they are known to contain content illegitimately ripped from other entries. Please always double check your original sources. We have had to partially or fully disqualify entries that violated this rule in the past, so there will be no exceptions, regardless of whether these rules were violated in good faith or not.
3. If you are reusing assets from another game (such as its art as part of a level) or other assets not created by you, please mention the game or original location in the credits section of the entry page. An appropriate field is made available on entry pages for you to credit all your work.
4. If your entry requires a user to manually supply assets from another game (for example, due to legal reasons where they must own the game said assets are in, rather than be included in the download itself), you must explicitly state this in the description and give instructions on how they can extract the assets to be used in your entry. You may include extraction or patching tools as an extra download option if this helps to do so. We have allowed similar cases before in previous years, such as with Sonic 3D: Director's Cut in the SHC2017 Expo, where the entry provided an IPS patch and the original ROM was necessary to obtain yourself in order to play it.
5. If your entry includes non-Sonic music content that is known to receive restrictions in mainstream video sharing platforms (e.g. YouTube, Twitch, etc…), you are asked to specify this information in your entry. At the very least, you need to include this in the section of your entry dedicated to the Media Panel.
The general course of action for stolen content is that the participant will have all of their entries removed from the Sonic Hacking Contest.
1. If your entry focuses on inside jokes with no appeal to anyone other than those in the know, the Contest may not be a valid place for it to be shown. Think if your entry will appeal to a larger audience.
2. Regarding controversial content in entries:
• Sexually explicit content such as nudity or any overtly sexual content are not allowed in submissions.
• Offensive content such as racism, homophobia, transphobia, or other forms of unfair discrimination are not allowed in submissions.
• Political statements of any kind, or references to current events such as conflicts or wars regardless of what side are also to be avoided.
• Violence and curse words (swearing) are allowed within reason. Should the Judges believe it necessary, entries featuring excessive amounts of those, or entries featuring content unsuitable for all ages, may be tagged accordingly with a notice at the top of the entry's description. Please state clearly if your entry contains potentially triggering content, within reason. Should the entry feature exceptionally gruesome content, it may be ineligible for submission anyway.
It is up to the Staff of the Sonic Hacking Contest to determine what falls in these categories. Judges reserve the right to not accept an entry, or request changes made to an entry, if any of the above guidelines are found to have been violated.
3. Do not make an entry with the sole purpose of just gaming the rules/exploit any loopholes. You'll just be banned, from this year and possibly future years as well. If you have any doubts about the rules, or have learned of potential loopholes, please inform the Staff instead.
4. No private entries. If you want to submit to the Contest your entry must be made available completely to the Public.
5. Give a thought about your target audience. Make sure your entry is not over-complicated to run or unnecessarily bloated. If a mod can be 200MB and easily installed with a mod loader, we don't want to see a 2GB submission that achieves the same thing requiring total file replacement.
6. All entries should be enjoyable for all to play. Please refrain from submitting monotonous, off-putting, or insanely difficult entries (such as "Kaizo" hacks). While these are enjoyable to some we want everyone here to be able to enjoy your entries, and unfortunately these just do not do so to most.
7. All entries are viewed equal regardless of who submits them. Do not be put off with people or collectives well known in the community potentially submitting something that could win trophies - people do not win trophies because of who they are in this community, people win because their entry deserved to win.
Protip: if you're going against a powerhouse that could win many trophies, try competing on one field you're really good at, or one that doesn't get much competition. You might be surprised with the results, and your entry might still manage to be a stand out!
8. While you're generally free to advertise anything you want, be it yourself, or a group or community you may be part of, do not use your entries to advertise any of the following:
• Select individuals or communities that could pose an active threat to the Sonic Hacking Contest and its userbase.
• Paywall gated content (e.g. content behind Patreon pages that require payment to access).
We will make sure to contact you in case of violation before taking action on your entry.
9. Unless there is a genuine basis that would compel or require us to act differently, we will not delete past SHC entries from either the website or the Vault.
10. Contact us if you have any issue regarding the Contest. While we have many members of SHC Staff available across many corners of the community, we are not omniscient: for the best chance at having your feedback considered, make sure to contact us directly. You can find the best methods for reporting any issues about the Sonic Hacking Contest here.