GAME AND REVIEW SUBMISSION RULES

Overview

The Game section of RMN is designed to release and advertise your projects. Game projects should be of your own creation and should show some sort of general progress. The Game section is limited to games that are produced by indie developers. Any playable game you submit to RMN must be free to play.

Commercial Games

A commercial game is a game that you intend to sell, whole or in part, to a prospective player so that they may play the full game. This includes games which have a microtransaction marketplace or uses a subscription based service to allow play or implements in-game real-world advertisements.

If you intend to sell your game commercially, you must flag the game as a Commercial game in the gameprofile. Soliciting donations for your work is also acceptable (including the use of and advertisement of your Kickstarter or other fundraising campaign). Your commercial gameprofile is eligible to be up on RMN during the development and after the release of your game. Your gameprofile must be clearly labeled and identifiable as a commercial game.

RMN does not have the staffing, resources, site tools and infrastructure, legal expertise, nor server reliability to support the hosting commercial game ventures. Hence, hosting your commercial game download here is not allowed. Commercial transactions and sales here (a marketplace, selling the game, shopping carts, financial transactions) are not supported. You can host a commercial gameprofile here, but you cannot sell your game through RMN's portal. You must host and sell your commercial game download on your own or other third-party website. Again, any playable game you submit directly to RMN must be free to play.

RMN is not liable nor responsible for any perceived lost sales of your game.

RMN reserves the right to deny any game that appears to be a blatant cashgrab, at RMN's staff's discretion.

Game Submissions

All game submissions require a pertinent and informative description (as a guideline, at least 2 paragraphs, 4-5 sentences each; there is an enforced minimum of 500 characters in the description) explaining your project. You are also required to have at least 3 screenshots showing some form of in-game play. Your game won't enter the submission queue until 3 screens are loaded.

When writing the description, please try to be detailed as possible about the game itself. As an exercise, imagine that you were SELLING the game, what would you put? How would you convince your potential audience to try it out? It does not have to be an essay, but in general the description should be the best information available on the game.

You are allowed to use standard BBCode tags in textboxes.

Also consider using gamepages to split up your game information into categories.

Screenshots

The screenshots need to have variety - three screenshots of one location will not suffice. Title screens, splash screens, map art, or character art do not count toward your screenshot total (but are certainly allowed).

  • Your gameprofile has a screenshot gallery built into it. Uploaded screenshots are automatically accepted and placed inside your gameprofile's gallery.
  • You can later remove screenshots, but you will be unable to edit them.
  • We only support JPEG and PNG screenshots. GIFs, BMPs and others are not allowed.
  • Pornographic material is NOT allowed.

How to take a screenshot and submit it to RMN...

Downloads

Game downloads below 20 MB are accepted so long as it follows the Terms of Service. Games greater than that are up to RMN staff discretion (most are accepted). Games greated than 450MB cannot be accepted.

Please submit the entire game, and not just the rpg_rt.exe or game.exe. That is not the game. For example, in RM2k3, ZIP the entire game folder and submit that zip file. In RMXP, try using the gamedisc/installer. Submissions consisting solely the aforementioned .exe files will be denied.

Game Download submissions are for games. They are not your personal filespace on the internet. Use your Locker for that.

You are not allowed to abuse the game download update/game blogging/image uploading features to artificially anchor your game on the front page.

Gaming the system so that your game is constantly on the frontpage is against the rules. (a.k.a. The Davenport Rule - named after the first egregious offender). People caught abusing this system with their game download will have their game forcibly removed from the frontpage. Repeat offenses will lead to the game being removed from RMN.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is not allowed and any member caught plagiarizing without the permission of the original author will be subject to discipline from the site staff. Members caught plagiarising will be given the opportunity to defend their actions to the staff, but if plagiarism is evident beyond a doubt, that member will be banned.

As far as graphics go, there is some leeway. For example, using rips is a common practice. So long as you do not claim or imply that someone else's graphics are your own, it is not considered plagiarism at this site. However, using someone else's graphics against their wishes is frowned upon and will be dealt with should the creator object.

Review Submissions

You have the ability to submit reviews for games featured on RMN.

You can only review games that have an available download.

It is required that you have played the game you are reviewing. If possible you should play the game to completion. If you are unable or unwilling to complete a game but feel compelled to review it you must state how long you played and the reason you stopped playing.

You may rate the game and give it a score ranging between 0.5 and 5.0 stars. You may also choose not to give a score. Be prepared to justify your rating with the content of your review. If you give an exceedingly low score you are expected to describe the game's flaws in detail. Similarly if you feel the game deserves a high score you must adequately justify this viewpoint.

You must write at least two paragraphs, 4-5 sentences long. Be prepared to discuss gameplay, graphics, sound, or anything else relevant to the game you are reviewing. Justify and elaborate on your points. A one-liner does not constitute a review. Heaping praise on a game and giving it a score does not constitute a review. Those are appropriate for the comments section.

You are expected to maintain a certain level of professionalism and maturity in writing a review. Personal insults, name-calling, or other nonsense will not be tolerated. As always, proper spelling and grammar are expected.

If you feel you do not have enough content to make a solid review you should consider simply posting your thoughts on the gamepage comments or sending a message directly to the creator.

All reviews are evaluated by staff before they are accepted and appear on the site. The staff may deny your review if we feel it does not meet the site's standards. Typically when this is done you will be informed of what changes need to be made before the review can be accepted.

Disclaimer

Even should you meet the minimum requirements as outlined above, the staff reserves the right to deny any submission to the site.

Bad Content Ban Rule

Further to the above requirements, we will only approve content that we deem worthy. We reserve the right to reject your submitted content on the basis that it sucks. Only content that is believed to be of a certain level of quality will be approved by our moderation team at their discretion.

What does this mean for the average user? Well, nothing really. This is not meant to be a form of censorship and we're not going to actively looking for reasons to deny your content. The vast majority of our users here generate decent enough discussion and submit good enough work. However, it does mean we will refuse to be a dumping ground for spastic noob submissions.

What to do if your Game Submission is denied...

The Curtailment of Bad Blogs Act

Users of RMN's blog system agree to post only significant, pertinent and worthwhile content in their blogs.

Blogs that are bereft of content will be identified and the posted will be asked to supply significant, pertinent and worthwhile content for said blog, or risk having it deleted. Repeat offenders risk having their game temporarily denied.

Posting two blogs immediately back-to-back will result in the deletion of the second blog, regardless of the quality of the content.

Re-posting the same blog is not allowed.

Questions

If you have any questions, concerns or suggestions, please contact us!