Acceptable games

!!! The game must be acceptable

We have two sets of rules on acceptable games, varying between [Class|classes]: rules for [Standard] that contain genre and game type restrictions, and rules for [Moons] that permit more types of games but require the submission to be entertaining. There is a third class, [Stars], but it consists of movies from Standard and Moons picked by users and staff. Games that are acceptable in either of those classes are acceptable in Stars.

!! Standard

This class contains movies that represent tool-assisted superplay records of [LinkToRelevantSection|standardized goals]. Game choice has some limitations as seen below.

! The game must have clear achievable goals

Games consisting mainly of aimless wandering are not considered acceptable.

The gameplay needs to stand out from unassisted play, and must not be seen as trivial. Note that a game is considered trivial until proven otherwise. If getting perfect times everywhere is challenging, such a game is considered acceptable. If a game was considered trivial but a technique is found later that makes TASing it challenging, that game becomes acceptable.
* Example of a trivial (mini-)game which does not stand out is ''Desert Bus''.

Games focusing on freeform creativity are not considered acceptable.
* Examples are the main feature of ''Mario Paint'' or ''Color a Dinosaur''.

If a game consists of presenting a story with user input having little to no effect on it, it is not acceptable. This includes games which are overwhelmingly made up of cutscenes with very little user interaction anywhere. This also includes visual novels and games of a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choose_Your_Own_Adventure|Choose Your Own Adventure] story book variety, where the user has no creative control beyond choosing between predefined choices. Examples include:
* ''Super Adventure Rockman''
* The Arcade version of ''[http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon's_lair|Dragon's Lair]''.

! No game hacks

[MovieTagGuidelines#UnofficialGames|Game hacks] are not eligible for Standard. We demand hacks with entertainment value, therefore they are judged by the [Moons|Moon class] requirements.

! No board games or game show games

These game genres are not eligible for Standard.
* This includes ''real-world board games'' such as [2768S|chess] and ''Monopoly''.

! Sports games are allowed under restrictions

Sports running with a fixed time, such as football, soccer, or basketball are not eligible.
* Games featuring multiple successive sports, such as track & field and Olympics, are eligible as long as one of the sports fits the criteria.

The game must have a meaningful ending point with meaningful completion criteria.
* For example, many sports games have career, storyline, tournament or season modes that end with an ending or credit sequence. These would count as meaningful endings.
* In sports that depend on a variety of environments or situations, such as golf, completion can be defined by clearing every environment or situation in the game.
* TASes that only clear a single event or several events of a larger set without reaching a meaningful ending to the game are not eligible.

Team-based sports games should provide enough control to the player to be able to competitively speedrun the game and have a meaningful record, as decided by the judge.

The run must not be seen as trivial.
* If a run consists of executing a trivial strategy where the only challenge is having to do it over the course of several rounds, it will still be judged as trivial. For example, bowling games where the player gets a strike with ten pins every time.

Sports games in the Standard class are restricted to one game per series per platform, unless gameplay is significantly different. For example, ''PGA Tour Golf III'' on the Sega Genesis may obsolete ''PGA Tour Golf II'' on the Sega Genesis. Which game obsoletes which is decided by a judge in favor of the game that makes a more technically impressive run.
* For games with different characters/groups/countries with different statistics, only the fastest run is accepted. Runs using characters known to be suboptimal are not accepted.

!! Moons

This class has minimal restrictions on game choice, but the resulting movies must be seen as entertaining. Read the [Guidelines#Fashion|TASing guidelines on fashion] on how to accomplish this.

!! Non-official games (hacks, homebrews, etc.) and prototypes

[MovieTagGuidelines#UnofficialGames|Non-official games] are allowed for submission. However, they go through more scrutiny than other games. This is because the game itself also becomes subject to judgment, so it must meet a minimum standard of quality or notability to be eligible for publication. We look for games that can be played and completed, have some recognition or popularity, or are notable in some other ways as decided by the judge and the audience.
* If a game is infamous and notable for being too buggy to even be completable, we may allow a patched version that fixes some of the bugs and makes it completable.

__Bootlegs__ are not accepted if they are direct clones of licensed games on the same platform: we prefer official versions. Ports from other platforms are acceptable, as long as the gameplay has notable differences.

__Game hacks__ must be accepted by the community as being entertaining enough to make it to the Moons class, usually by showing unique gameplay or brand new content. Hacks of the same game may obsolete each other if the new hack is deemed superior, such as by showing off more unique content.

__Game hacks and homebrews__ must be in a finished release state; demo or beta versions of in-development games are not allowed. Homebrews and hacks that are not finished, but have been abandoned by their authors (explicitly as a public announcement, or implicitly as lack of updates or replies from the author for at least 5 years straight), can be considered.

__Prototype game versions__ are only accepted if there is no stable release version available on the same (or compatible) system.
* If the prototype is so different from the official release that it can be considered a different game (at least 50% of inherently unique gameplay), it is acceptable.

! No cosmetic hacks or fan translations

We don't allow hacks that only serve to change the looks of the original game. Hacks must provide unique gameplay. This rule is strict.

!! Adult-only games are not allowed

Video games [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AO-rated_video_games|rated adult-only], or unrated adult video games with strong sexual content and/or extreme violence to AO-rating standards, are not allowed in any circumstance.
* For games with uncensored adult-only versions and censored versions that are rated less than AO, a movie of either version is allowed as long as no uncensored content is accessed or visible. For example, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is allowed as long as no Hot Coffee content is seen in it.
* A movie that takes a non-adult-rated game but still implements adult-only depictions through customization, glitches, or other such methods, may still be rejected for featuring adult-only content.

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