I'm not sure if I have time to compete since I don't have the luxury of summer break anymore. If I made time and couldn't find artists for team members then I'd like to buy custom character models and animations for my seemingly unique idea. I'm not even sure that's affordable until I get some quotes. We can make our own assets and use free assets from the web. I'm assuming we can even purchase the commonly seen mesh sets from TurboSquid and similar sites. Is paying (out of pocket) for custom assets any different? Does that go against the "spirit of the contest?" Personally, I think it falls right in line with the ability to use middleware, game makers, and engines. That's what allows people of different disciplines (programmers, artists, designers) to compete against each other. I'd compare it to going to a hobby shop or hardware store to have special parts made for a go kart race, science fair project, or invention competition. Thoughts?

I'm no official, but I don't see how there'd be a problem with it as long as you can grant GDNET redistribution rights over the assets.