Here at UploadVR we love to see creativity thrive in the virtual reality development scene. Our European media friends over at VRFocus do too, so they’re putting together a VR game jam for next month.
The site has today announced the Virtual Reality Challenge (VRC) in partnership with Epic Games. It’s set to be a massive VR-only contest, taking place in a few week’s time between September 3rd and 4th at Campus London, 4 – 5 Bonhill Street in the UK capital. Applications for the jam are opening today. A total of eight teams of three developers will be picked and they’ll then compete for the grand prize; an HTC Vive headset for every member. Given the Vive’s recent price hike, that’s well over £2,000 in prizes, which are provided by Epic’s Unreal Dev Grants program.
But what will teams actually have to do? Using Epic’s VR-enabled Unreal Engine 4, entrants will be tasked with designing a brand new VR experience based off of a theme given to them at the start of the contest. The catch? They’ll only have 24 hours to make it.
As they work, teams will be provided mentorship from well-established VR developers like Climax Studios, the makers of the Bandit Six series, Pool Nation VR developer CherryPop Games, and Supermassive Games, the team behind the much-anticipated Until Dawn: Rush of Blood and Tumble VR.
Teams can bring their own hardware for the jam, though Nvidia will also be providing PCs for development, while food will also be provided by Climax. Other than that, all you’ll need to bring is a fresh mind, technical know how and plenty of determination. Maybe some coffee too.
This should be a great opportunity to nurture some exciting new VR experiences, and we’re looking forward to seeing what comes out of the event. Who knows, perhaps the next big VR game is just waiting to be realized in the mad scramble.
Good luck to everyone that enters!
