Amazon is looking to kickstart VR and AR content development for its Sumerian service with a new hackathon.
Last week the company launched the ‘Sumerian AR/VR Challenge‘, which aims to get developers working on the web-based platform with over $100,000 in prizes on offer. Amazon introduced Sumerian last year as an easy way to get people building content for both VR and AR that exists on the web. It doesn’t require any software downloads and only charges users based on the storage used for 3D assets and the volume of traffic generated to visit their creations.
Over the course of the next four months teams are encouraged to learn how to use Sumerian via support from a Slack community, Twitch and webinars and then apply their skills to make an app for one of four categories including educational apps, experiences to help brand engagement, entertainment pieces and other types of services.
The winner in each category will be awarded $5,000 in cash and a further $5,000 in Amazon Web Service credits. Through partnerships, Amazon is also offering the HTC Vive Focus standalone VR headset to every winner (which isn’t even available in the US/EU yet), a year’s membership to the VR/AR Association, tuition to the RMIT Online AR/VR Strategy course and other opportunities. An overall best VR app winner will also get a further $1,000 and a Vive Pro complete bundle.
Interested? You can sign up for a free 12 month trial to an Amazon Web Service developer account. Submissions are due before January 8th 2019 at 5pm EST.
