Learning Challenge by Disney Research

There's a really interesting competition by Disney Research in conjuction with SIGGRAPH 2010.

Check it out, and let me know if you're interested.

Singapore Android Developer Challenge 2010

If you've ever wondered how to program for one of the coolest cutting edge technologies for touch-screen/accelerometer mobile phones, here's a chance for you to get knee deep and your fingers dirty.

NTU and Motorola Singapore are hosting the 1st Singapore Android Developer Challenge.

Form a team and ask (very nicely) one of your lecturers to be a mentor.

National Infocomm Competition Launch 2010!

Prizes and goodies galore! Check out the NIC website or the attached pic for more info.

Remember to email to register!

Student Explorer Grant for games - up to S$50,000 funding

MIT has a call for a proposal out. Details as follows:

Turn your ideas into a business venture!

Presented by the SMART Innovation Centre

Do you have an exciting game or web application? Do you want to be an entrepreneur? The Explorer Grant will assist individual students or groups of students explore further development and commercialization of innovative games and web applications originated by them. The Explorer Grant will provide up to S$50,000 in funding to develop commercial prototypes, evaluate go-to-market strategies so that your game or web application can be licensed to an existing company or form the basis of a start-up company.

The Explorer Grant recipients will also be provided with business expertise, guidance on intellectual property, and networking opportunities with the Singapore and international venture capital community.

Important Dates

• 14 September 2009: Grant submission opens
• 30 October 2009: Grant closes, 5pm (Singapore time)
• 30 January 2010: Award Grant

Eligibility
Full time undergraduate or graduate students at:

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Nanyang Technological University
• National University of Singapore
• Singapore Management University
• Nanyang Polytechnic
• Ngee Ann Polytechnic
• Republic Polytechnic
• Singapore Polytechnic
• Temasek Polytechnic
• Other Singapore institutes and recent graduates can be considered

You must identify a faculty member at your institute to act as a Faculty Mentor.

You can work in student teams or individuals. If working as a team, a team leader must be identified. Teams from multiple institutes/universities can be formed.

Submission Process
The proposal must be submitted electronically to explorergrants@smart.mit.edu by 30th October, 2009, 5pm, Singapore time.

Grant application form is available at http://web.mit.edu/smart/explorer

For inquiries about the grant program, contact Howard Califano at howard.califano@smart.mit.edu or visit our website at http://web.mit.edu/smart/innovationcentre for more information.

DreamBuildPlay 2009

It's coming again in April 2009! Get your coding gear on and get a Creator's Club License as well.

DreamBuildPlay is the one coding competition for XNA you must not miss!

Contest: Mission Darkstar

Earlier this semester, the organisers of the Heritage Gaming Contest came down to give a briefing about Mission Darkstar.

The deadline for proposals has been extended to next Monday, 9th March 2009.

Check the proposal requirements and submission here!

DreamBuildPlay Game Video

Our team of 5 GD students submitted their game recently for Microsoft's DreamBuildPlay 2008 challenge.

Here's the video trailer of the game.

Cancelled: Code-a-thon 2008

I've just received notice from the organisers of Code-a-thon 2008 that it's been cancelled.

A disappointment for sure, but looking at the calendar ahead, we've got Contrast from NUS and the DreamBuildPlay contest all ending this month, so keep your brains busy and ideas flowing!

Reminder: DreamBuildPlay 2008

Here's a reminder to sign up for the DreamBuildPlay Challenge 2008. Entries close 23 September 2008, but you may want to submit as early as 1 September!

There's prizes galore, plus a free 12 month Creator's Club Subscription once you sign up. What are you waiting for?

Code-a-thon 2008

The annual Code-a-thon is here again. This year's event will be held Mon-Tue, 15-16 September. Here's the email invite:

"Code-a-thon 2008 is open for registration!

Code-a-thon is the games festival for games developers worldwide. Talented student game programmers and artists will be challenged to code a game for 30-hours.

Code-a-thon 2008 will be held in Singapore on the 15th - 16th September 2008 and the results will be announced during Games Convention Asia 2008. Nanyang Polytechnic would like to invite your insitution to form and send student teams to participate.

For more information, please refer to the official competition website below: http://www.nyp.edu.sg/sgcc/codeathon/ "

Let me know if you'd like to sign up as a team - support can be given in the form of notebooks and other development equipment if needed.

NOTE: Closing date is 31 August - you'll need a letter from us to confirm you're enrolled in SP as a full-time student, so please let me know by today if you want to enter!

NUS Contrast 2008

The NUS Students' Communications and New Media Society is organising Contrast, a 24 hr Game Design Competition (12 - 13 September 2008).

Here's the email from Kian Boon, President, NUS Students' CNM Society, Deputer Projects Director, Contrast 2008. (What's a Deputer?)

"CONTRAST is a 24-hour game design competition jointly organized by the Communications and New Media (CNM) Society and Game Development Group (GDG) from the National University of Singapore.

Due to the overwhelming and well-received response from the participants in previous years, CONTRAST is running for its third year, with a brand new theme.

This will be a very good platform for aspiring game developers to get together and hone their skills. Besides, it will also be a very good opportunity for your students to build up their game portfolios which would give them an edge should they decide to seek a career in the gaming industry.We are currently sourcing for participants, sponsorships, judges, venues to make this event even more successful.

That said, we would like to be able to source for interested participants from your school.

For more information, you can visit http://contrast2008.blogspot.com/"

Deadline for registration is 4 September 2008.

Give me a ring, drop me an email or just post a comment here if you'd like to join or are looking for someone to team up with. We're sponsoring the registration fees for any team from DIT GD that would like to enter.

Dream Build Play 2008

Can't get enough of XNA Game Studio 2.0 in class? ;)

Microsoft's Dream Build Play challenge is on again. The emphasis for the competition is as usual, fun games.

Register to get a year's subscription for the XNA Creator's Club (worth US$99 or S$179).

If you're doing the Console Game Development module in DMIT, you might want to think about putting in the polish for those assignments and submitting them as an entry in the challenge.

Due date is in September 2008. Submissions may be made from 1 - 23 September.

Imagine Cup 2008 Important Dates!

There are at least 5 teams this year from the GD option that's going for the Imagine Cup 2008, so it looks like good news!

Just for posterity sake, here are the important dates for reference...

August 25, 2007 Registration Opens
September 1, 2007 Competition Begins
February 1, 2008Round 1 Closes
February 22, 2008 Round 2 Begins
May 2, 2008 Round 2 Closes
May 23, 2008 Worldwide Finalists and Top 20 Teams Announced
July 3-8, 2008 Finals in France

What is the IGF?

Check out the prizes for this year's IGF (Independent Games Festival) at GDC 2007 site.

"Independent Games Festival was established in 1998 to encourage innovation in game development and to recognize the best independent game developers.

Just as the Sundance Film Festival benefits the independent film community, the IGF creates a similar event for independent game developers in addition to the student population of game developers. The competition culminates at the GDC where winners are announced and over $50,000 worth in prizes awarded."

The IGF's Student Showcase highlighted a total of ten games this year with each IGF Student Showcase Winner awarded US$500. In addition, a prize for best overall IGF Student Game was awarded as part of the IGF Awards, with the finalists comprising all of the Student Showcase winners. Best Student Game took an additional US$2,500.

DreamBuildPlay by Microsoft

Microsoft is conducting an Game Development competition, DreamBuildPlay, with a closing date of 2 July 2007.

I attended Microsoft's events at GDC and got to see the games the 4 teams built in 4 days. Quite impressive - simple but still fun.

Take a look at the following article, and follow the link to www.dreambuildplay.com and let me know if you'd like to join. I strongly encourage you to sign up for this.

I also attended MS's hands-on session for XNA Game Dev. As you might know, XNA uses C#, so if you're comfortable with Java, you should be able to start building real quick.

You can sign up for this as individuals or as a team effort. As the closing date is in July (closer than we feel), I suggest kick starting development ASAP. Think of an original game concept and start working on it for the Windows platform. If you do decide to port over to XBox 360 (which is quite simple), we can test it out using a Creator's Club license (which you don't have to get yet).

Intel Game Demo Contest

Intel is holding its Intel Game Demo Contest.

There are 2 main categories:
1. Best Threaded Game - "show off the computational power of a multi-core processor"
2. Best Game on the Go - "show advances in laptop gaming. Think fun. Think fast. Think features."

Contest is now on til July 1st, 2007.

Selection is from July 1st to Aug 1st 2007. This means entries must be in by July 1st.

As usual, let me know if you are interested to join - drop me an email or give me a ring.

Go to their website for more info.

MOTODEV Game Developer Challenge

Motorola and I-play are holding the MOTODEV Game Developer Challenge. There's a Grand Prize package of an I-play game publishing deal, tons (ok maybe more than a few) of Motorola mobile phones, and more.

If you've taken MGEP or MGDE (depending on when I've taught you), you are probably eligible already. Dig out that cool game you made for Assignment x and polish it up for submission! You CAN of course whip up something entirely new and dazzle the judges. :)

Submissions are due 10 August, 2007. If you're interested, let me know by sending me an email or calling my office number.

Visit the above links for more details.