Arcade is a game where you get prizes for building, documenting, and shipping projects.
The spirit of Arcade is for you to build stuff in a hacker mindset. Start a project, push it to an MVP as fast as possible, publish it, then iterate quickly. We have rules and standards for review, but the ultimate thing those rules are trying to get at is "are you doing real work on personal projects in a hacker mindset".
This is the first draft of a living document defines "what counts" for the Hack Club Arcade. It should be a short and sweet reference for Arcade players and reviewers alike. Comments, pull requests, and questions are welcome.
Arcade has three essential phases:
- Build projects and log your hours with
/arcade - Document progress in a git-based versioning system
- Ship a shareable version in #scrapbook when it's ready
After you ship, you'll get a ticket for every hour that passes review. Spend these tickets with /shop
A project is a self-directed creative effort toward an output that other people can meaningfully experience.
Fine Print
- Homework or work done for a job are not self-directed and therefore don't count
- Projects started (but not finished) before Arcade are okay, but only the work done during Arcade can be logged
The journey of each project must be shared in a public git repository, with at least one update committed per hour logged.
Fine Print
- Every update needs a link to the git commit for that hour
- For code or other text-based content, put the actual code in the repo. For everything else, images or videos are fineβin the repo though!
- Any git-based system is allowed, but GitHub is preferred. Many of our review automations are built around GitHub, so other systems may be more annoying for you to use.
A shipped project must be shared in a way that other people can experience to the greatest possible extent.
Fine Print
- Ships must be shared in the Hack Club Slack with a post in #scrapbook
- There must be a component of the ship that can be experienced by people in Slack
The gray areas of "what counts" are ultimately resolved with a vibe check. Here are some vibey questions we may ask ourselves when assessing whether something counts for Arcade:
- How technical is this project?
- Is this person pushing themselves?
- Does this project feel wholesome?
- Is this a highly self-directed project?
- Is this a good story?
- Am I amazed?
These are not criteria or requirements, they are just vibes. But when a project is in a gray zone, these vibes guide our decisions.
The main idea is that we want whatever you submit to be your own work, and something unique and original. AI tools and tutorials are not disallowed, but we want whatever you make to still be yours.
Fine Print
- Code generated with ChatGPT, Copilot, Phind, or any other AI tool must be declared as such. Explain which code is generated in comments at the top of your files and/or your commit note. If necessary, leave more information in your session thread. This isn't because we're fun haters, it's just because we want whatever you produce to be your own work, and to be able to differentiate between what was made by you and what was used as a tool.
- The same applies for code copied from tutorials - Following tutorials is fine, but it can't be your whole project. If a substantial part of your code is directly copied from a tutorial, it's not really your work and you shouldn't take credit for it. If your entire project is following a tutorial with minimal edits, we cannot count it.
- Using Stack Exchange / guides / AI to solve a single problem or take a single line of code is OK, but remember if it's much more than that to say where it came from. We're not looking for APA citations here, just a link or quick comment is fine.
- Be honest, please. Don't take credit for other people's work, lie about AI usage, or anything similarly violating the integrity of Hack Club. Failure to follow these policies may result in any of the punishments listed in the next section.
- This is a living, changing document. Rules have changed and will continue changing. For practical reasons we have to enforce whatever the latest rules are, even for hours that were submitted before the change.
- You can't bank more than 25 hours at a time, because of arcane technical reasons, but also because you should be shipping and iterating on a loop tighter than 25 hours
- If we think you have knowingly submitted something fradulent, we will either give you negative hours or just ban you outright
- Nothing that breaks the law or facilitates breaking of laws, please
- Remember, if you're ever not sure about a rule, drop a message in #arcade-help and we'll let you know.
Build stuff, get stuff, repeat. All summer. (ends August 31st)
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