Rules and Code of Conduct

Eligibility

The Hackathon IS open to:

• Individuals who are at least the age of majority where they reside as of the time of entry (“Eligible Individuals”);
• Teams of up to four Eligible Individuals (“Teams”); and
• Organizations (including corporations, not-for-profit corporations and other nonprofit organizations, limited liability companies, partnerships, and other legal entities) that exist and have been organized or incorporated at the time of entry and approved by the hackathon host (the above are collectively, “Entrants”).

An Eligible Individual may only join one Team or Organization or may contribute on an individual basis. If a Team or Organization is entering the Hackathon, they must appoint and authorize one individual (the “Representative”) to represent, act, and enter a Submission, on their behalf. By entering a Submission on behalf of a Team or Organization you represent and warrant that you are the Representative authorized to act on behalf of your Team or Organization.

The Hackathon IS NOT open to:

• Individuals who are residents of, or Organizations domiciled in, a country, state, province or territory where the laws of the United States or local law prohibits participating or receiving a prize in the Hackathon (including, but not limited to, Brazil, Quebec, Russia, Crimea, Belarus, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria and any other country designated by the United States Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control)
• Organizations involved with the design, production, paid promotion, execution, or distribution of the Hackathon, including the Sponsor and Administrator (“Promotion Entities”).
• Employees, representatives and agents** of such Promotion Entities, and all members of their immediate family or household*
• Any other individual involved with the design, production, promotion, execution, or distribution of the Hackathon, and each member of their immediate family or household*
• Any Judge (defined below), or company or individual that employs a Judge
• Any parent company, subsidiary, or other affiliate*** of any organization described above
• Any other individual or organization whose participation in the Hackathon would create, in the sole discretion of the Sponsor and/or Administrator, a real or apparent conflict of interest

* The members of an individual’s immediate family include the individual’s spouse, children and stepchildren, parents and stepparents, and siblings and step siblings. The members of an individual’s household include any other person that shares the same residence as the individual for at least three (3) months out of the year.

** Agents include individuals or organizations that in creating a Submission to the Hackathon, are acting on behalf of, and at the direction of, a Promotion Entity through a contractual or similar relationship.

*** An affiliate is: (a) an organization that is under common control, sharing a common majority or controlling owner, or common management; or (b) an organization that has a substantial ownership in, or is substantially owned by the other organization.

Team Formation

• Teams can consist of individuals or teams of a maximum of four members. Please contact the hackathon committee in case you need to explain an exception to this standard.
• Changes to team members are not permitted after the start of the hackathon. Exceptions may be made on a case by case basis as decided by the planning committee.

Project Development

• No development may start before the actual date and time of the hackathon. Any teams that violate this rule will be automatically disqualified.
• The first line of code must be written or the first wireframes generated after the hackathon start. However, teams can brainstorm ideas, and can meet as team members beforehand.
• Any software development tools, game engine, IDE, and/or programming language can be used for the event, and teams bare the responsibility of ensuring all of their tools are legally licensed.
• To ensure a level field for all contestants, all code must be created only at the hackathon. You are permitted to use publicly developed and openly licensed API’s and SDKs for your project.
• PAID-FOR API’s, SDKs, PACKAGES, OR ANY OTHER MATERIALS/CODE THAT REQUIRE A PAID LICENSE ARE PROHIBITED.
• Paid-for and properly licensed IDE’s are permitted as long as any auto-code-generation features, defined as greater than typical intellisense / autocomplete,  are turned OFF for the duration of the hackathon.
• You will only be able to use a pre-public release of a product in developing your project if you openly disclose that tool to other teams competing in the Hackathon in the Metaverse Creators Discord community and it does not pose to grant an unfair advantage.
• Project design assets should conform to the Creative Commons License agreement standard, be originally developed by your team or include written permission to use from the original creator. Proof of permission must be given upon request.
• Assets, SDKs, APIs or other tools or components available under a trial license may be used in their trial form.
• A team can submit only one entry for the hackathon.
• You are not allowed to be on more than one team.
• Any intellectual property developed during and within the scope of the hackathon must be open source and licensed under one of the licenses referenced in https://opensource.org/licenses.
• The license selected by the team must be clearly listed in code (page per page) or a generic page announcing the license the application adheres to. The public code used inside your application should also list the licenses the code is subjected to.
• A team can use multiple licenses in the application. For example, the public code used could be licensed under the Apache license agreement whereas the code written by the team for the application licensed under the Creative Commons License agreement.
• A team may not code applications that violate the code of conduct. For example, racially insensitive content will automatically trigger disqualification and dismissal from the hackathon.

Project Submission

Teams will enter submission information by joining this itch.io jam event  and completing the requirements explained there which include these items:

1. Choose a team name. 
2. Provide participating member names and emails.
3. Provide a mobile phone number for the lead submitter to only be used by the event organizers in case of immediate needs. After judging is complete, this number will be removed.
4. Provide a 2-3 paragraph description of your project (This will be posted publicly with your project).
5. Describe applicable details including one or more of the following (as applicable):
   1. Project technology stack
   2. Development tools used
   3. SDKs used in the project
   4. APIs used in the project
   5. Public asset sources used in the project
   6. Libraries used in the project
   7. Any other components not created at the hackathon.
6. Provide a link to the public project repo. Note – Teams should commit regularly throughout the hackathon to the team repository to demonstrate that the code is being written during the hackathon time frame. Large code commits made near the end of the hackathon will draw the suspicion that the work was not completed at the hackathon and may trigger a deeper evaluation.
7. Provide a video link to a brief 2-minute demo video of the project uploaded to Youtube. This will be used to publicly demonstrate the project and aid in overall project evaluation.

Submitters, participants and judges will vote on projects immediately after the submission deadline. 

FAILURE TO ENTER AN ITCH.IO SUBMISSION BY THE PROVIDED DEADLINE WILL RESULT IN AN AUTOMATIC DISQUALIFICATION.

It is recommended teams submit to itch.io EARLY and OFTEN.

Note – Please make a team member available during the judging in case questions or needs arise. Failure to reply may put the submission at risk of not being considered.

Voting Process and Criteria

Each judge will be voting using 100-points equally divided across these categories: 

• Technically innovative
  
• Practical usefulness
  
• Creativity
  
• Virality & likely growth 

The Judges will evaluate submissions, and will be responsible for collectively deciding final ranking amongst themselves.

Photo and Attendance Release Waiver

• By attending or participating in the hackathon, you hereby grant the Metaverse Creators and its affiliates permission to use your name, your likeness in a photograph, video, or other digital media (“photo”) in any and all of its publications, including web-based and social media publications, without payment or other consideration. 
• You understand and agree that all photos will become the property of the Metaverse Creators or its affiliates and will not be returned.
• You irrevocably authorize the Metaverse Creators and its affiliates to edit, alter, copy, exhibit, publish, or distribute these photos for any lawful purpose. In addition, you waive any right to inspect or approve the finished product wherein my likeness appears. Additionally, you waive any right to royalties or other compensation arising or related to the use of the photo.
• You hereby hold harmless, release, and forever discharge the Metaverse Creators and its affiliates from all claims, demands, and causes of action which you, your heirs, representatives, executors, administrators, or any other persons acting on your behalf or on behalf of your estate have or may have by reason of this authorization.

Note – Contact information will not be published. 

Code of Conduct

• This hackathon commits to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone, without discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity), national origin, age (18 or older), disability and genetic information (including family medical history), or previous hackathon attendance or computing experience (or lack of any of the aforementioned).
• We do not tolerate harassment of hackathon participants in any form. Sexual language and imagery are not appropriate for any hackathon venue, including hacks, talks, workshops, parties, social media and other online media. Hackathon participants violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled from the hackathon at the discretion of the hackathon organizers.
• Harassment includes offensive verbal comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, nationality, or religion, sexual images in public spaces, deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, photography or audio/video recording against reasonable consent, sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual attention.
• As this is a virtual event, screenshots and screen-recordings are expected. If you do not wish to be recorded, it is expected you will not have your camera turned on. Having your camera turned on will effectively mean you are granting permission for the hackathon host to record you and use that recording in compliance with the hackathon rules (see Photo and Attendance Release Waiver). If you are feeling pressured to turn on your camera and do not wish to do so, please notify a member of the hackathon host staff so we can remedy the situation.
• All attendees are expected to treat each other with respect and care in all forms of communication (verbal, written, gestures, etc.). This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring consent before recording conversations, asking before taking screenshots that include webcam feeds, limiting the use of profanity to levels that the collective attendees present are comfortable with, etc..
• Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately. As this is a hackathon, we like to explicitly note that the hacks created at our hackathon are equally subject to the anti-harassment policy.
• Sponsors and partners are also subject to the anti-harassment policy. In particular, sponsors should not use sexualized images, activities, or other material. Sponsor representatives (including volunteers) should not use sexualized clothing/ uniforms/costumes or otherwise, create a sexualized environment. This includes but is not limited to any background imagery or video used during video conferences, Discord conversations, AirMeet events, etc.
• If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact a member of the hackathon staff immediately.
• Hackathon staff will be happy to help participants contact any local security or local law enforcement, or otherwise assist those experiencing harassment to feel safe for the duration of the hackathon. We value your attendance. If a participant engages in harassing behavior, the hackathon organizers may take any action they deem appropriate. This includes warning the offender, expulsion from the hackathon with no refund (if applicable), or reporting their behavior to local law enforcement.