changed:
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Entrants to the competition should attempt to incorporate a theme selected from the following. In general, interpretation of the theme is quite open (except where specific notes are given).

*NOTE* If you're going to comment on items in the list directly, please note your name next to the comment

- **hide** - Don't let anybody notice you.

- **black and white** - use only two colors.

- **growth** - Things That Grow

- **sound** - make sound a key gameplay element, for instance. Not necessarily the same as "audio interface" below. This one intentionally left vague, so as to allow a wider interpretation, esp. for those without sound recording/synthesis/playback possibilities.

- **coercion** - make forcing something/someone a key gameplay element

- **delayed action**

- **mechanics** - cogs, springs, steampower, airpressure - that sort of thing. Offers a reasonable limitation of the "physical interaction" theme discussed under "stacking" below.

- **non-action** - for instance, let the decisive interaction be made by remaining passive at the right moment/s

- **clothing**

- **substitution** - replacing something with some other thing

- **aging**

- **wind** - slightly different than "hurricane", perhaps too close to "air". The concept of a fluctuating, unpredictable, invisible force is key.

- **joints**

- **support** - as in propping things up, for example.

- **balance** - physic or metaphysic

- **square, circle, triangle** - the basic shapes

- **repetition**

- **repetition** -- MANT: Ha! :) There is NOOOO rule six!

- **illusion**

- **synergy**

- **genre mix** - ie puzzle meets shootemup

- **slow motion** - take anything that happens quickly, slow it down, and make a game out of it.

- **honey i shrunk myself!**

- **hurricane season**

- **chernobyl**

- **stacking or connecting things** 

- **virtual pet**

- **alchemy**

- **martian invasion**

- **lunch hour**

- **mind over matter**

- **kitchen combat**

- **alphabet**

- **tree house**

- **high finance**

- **land acquisition**

- **light** - lasers & mirrors, reflection and refraction

- **jewelry**

- **orbits**

- **underwater city**

- **security guards**

- **autumn**

- **loch ness monster**

- **airport**

- **gravity well**

- **saturn's rings**

- **mining for minerals**

- **ice as the playing surface**

- **at least 50 independent semi-intelligent moving objects**

- **a bug's life**

- **a bird's life**

- **a fish's life**

- **matching colors**

- **collecting coins**

- **road trip**

- **lemonade (NOT the original lemonade stand game!)**

- **gore, gib and blood**

- **card combat**

- **In a Tuxedo: Adventures of a penguin**

- **math & logic** - try to multiply 245x125 in 20 seconds or solve a puzzle of rules

- **programming game** - writing little programs to (a) solve a level or (b) to combat each other

- **remote control** - user input doesn't control the game's "main character(s)" *directly* but rather through some other means

- **rescue**

- **escape**

- **capture**

- **balance**

- **influence**

- **reversals**

- **corruption**

- **earth**

- **air**

- **fire**

- **water**

- **four elements** - earth, air, fire & water

- **goop**

- **fear**

- **evolution**

- **time**

- **death**

- **life**

- **love**

- **social interaction**

- **physical interaction**

- **procedural story**

- **procedural environment**

- **1 button**

- **Audio Interface**

- **Fun with agricultural appliances**

- **Edutainment**

- **Day & night**

- **Light & darkness**

- **Inbetween**

- **That tickly feeling in your stomach (not quite love)**

- **Consumption**

- **Consumerism**

- **Flight**

- **Wanton disregard for all law**

- **Bodily fluid protection**

- **The anti-death**

- **Mini games mania** - a game composed out of an unholy amount of mini games that are connected in intelligent or insane ways

- **Random** - lots of games already have random levels and items, see how far you can take it

- **Floating**

- **32x32 Pixel Screen** - From last compo.

- **Flow** - Fluids, electricity, etc.

- **Retro 3D** - attempt to create a 3D game without only 2D graphics libraries (IE SDL/2D allegro but no GL/D3D)

- **A foreign language** - Linguistic puzzles.

- **Terraforming** - turn a planet into a pizza

- **Construction** - Build something up from spare parts

- **multiple players** - a game designed for more than 2 people at once.

- **massively multi player** - a game designed for more than 50 people at once.  You can test it on the ld48h contestants! Stoic: Since the last compo only had 33 final contestants perhaps this should be revised down to 30 people.

- **networks, networking, networked** - could be multiplayer like above, or about forming networks, or cyberpunk, or spiders, or...

- **Education & Learning** - Could be an Edutainment game where you try to teach something or a game that includes Ai that can learn,...


See the CompRules page for info about how the theme for the comp will be selected.


Removed from the main list because they're duplicates:

- **programmable battle bots** - giving the player the ability to code the behaviour of a robot in-game. then, the bot has to solve a problem / fight up enemy bots without the player interacting to the game world.  (dupe: see "programming game")

- **breeding simulation**  - simulation about breeding the most or best fish, penguins, sheep, bioweapons; with or without a genetical model) (dupe: see "evolution")

- **a light in the darkness** (dupe: see "light & shadow")

- **Inversion** (dupe: see "reversals")

- **Crime** - Popularized by GTA, make a game based on some kind of criminal activity.  For example, petty larceny, arson, indecent exposure or driving under the influence. (dupe: see "Wanton disregard for all law")