After recently being valued at close to $4 billion, yesterday, Niantic, the developers of the massively successful mobile Augmented Reality (AR) game Pokemon GO, announced competition for developers to create their own Augmented Reality projects. Announced via a post from the company’s CTO and co-founder Phil Keslin on the Niantic blog, The Niantic Beyond Reality Developer Contest will allow developers to use the company’s proprietary Real World Platform AR technology to develop new games. Participants will have a chance to win a portion of a prize pool of over a million dollars.
Keslin stated in the post that the company isn’t just looking for games in the traditional sense either.
Our focus is on games, but our definition of games is pretty expansive. So if you have an idea that bridges gaming and other areas like physical activity, social, travel or shopping, please feel free to submit.
Ninantic is looking for developers that will create games that follow the company’s “core tenets” of exploration, exercise and real-world social interaction. Developers can enter the contest now on Niantic’s official website, and the contest will run until September 6, 2019. Developers will be able to submit their game design briefs that encompass the idea for the game and how it will take advantage of the company’s AR technology. However, developers must submit their projects by February 17, 2019. Developers participating must form teams that include at least five members who have experience working with Java and Unity.
Niantic will select ten teams as finalists and those teams will earn stipends and full access to the company’s Augmented Reality technology. After that, these select finalists will have three months to create a demo of their project to share on Demo Day in San Fransisco, California. Teams will also receive guidance and discussion from Niantic’s engineering team, and will get to meet executives and “lay the groundwork for the work to come.”