Please, excuse me @etoile if my words make you think I'm "playing cards". That's not the case :). I'm just trying to be honest and addressing your discomfort. Not playing anything at all. Just admitting our limitations as organizers (we are humans, and so we are flawed :).
I take your discomfort and raw opinions as a form of concern from you, and I value it. That's why I thank you again for honestly sharing your views and pointing to many ideas we should always take into account. And also I'm personally sorry for the discomfort caused: not intended, of course. Honestly, thank you :).
With respect to your quite understandable and important doubts, I believe many are addressed on the contest rules PDF document. We added a button at the top of itchio's page:
If you please take the time to review the document and still have doubts, I will be more than happy help :).
With respect to your also understandable criticism on "using external links", please, let me explain the probable source of the confusion. Our contest has been organized outside itchio on past 8 years. Amstrad CPC community and enthusiasts already know it and come to our main page http://cpcretrodev.byterealms.com for reference. In this sense, itchio is the external page for them this year: they have been sending their creations through our main page for 8 years :). As we are inevitably biased to our well known Amstrad CPC community and students, we have created this not as a standalone jam, but as an extension to our main contest page. This clearly creates an understanding problem for those at itchio that didn't previosly know the contest. Again, sorry for that: this is our fault, and discomfort cause was unintended. Sorry.
As flawed humans we are, we will be bound to make many mistakes now and in the future. I only ask you to respect our right to fail. Clearly, you want to help us not failing (otherwise you wouldn't bother detailing so many points :)). Thank you again :). We also don't want to fail, of course. But, as any other person, we are bound to take decisions based on our own views and capabilities. Please, don't be offended if our decisions are not aligned with your views: it's absolutely impossible to align decissions to everyone's criteria. And, of course, we cannot measure success as "100% people like the contest". If our decisions make you dislike our contest, we are sorry and hope not to take too much of your time. That's why I told you to safely ignore us and continue with other more interesting things for you. Being honest, not playing cards at all :).
Summarizing again: sorry for discomfort caused, and thank you for your concern and raw opinions that show it. I sincerely value your views. I hope these explanations can help you better understand our position and decisions, and please, let us follow our own path, even if it is not aligned with your views. Valuing your views is not the same as following your instructions :). Thank you for taking your time and expressing your concerns :)