Oculus Rift Devs Announce Big Contest!

And the Oculus Rift hype train keeps on rollin’.  The team at Oculus VR, the ones behind the highly anticipated virtual reality headset Oculus Rift, has just posted an announcement on their blog.  They have decided to throw a little contest to see if any developers can create an original, virtual reality game from scratch and they are calling it the “VR Jam.”  The team says,

 “Now that we’ve shipped over 15,000 development kits worldwide, we wanted to create an opportunity for the community to come together to jam on ideas for new, made-for-VR games that can only be built with the Rift.”

The grand prize winning developer will receive a cash prize of $10,000 USD, a trip to IndieCade Festival 2013, and meet the Oculus VR team. This is the perfect opportunity for independent developers to get their hands dirty and create something wonderful for the headset, especially since most things being developed right now for the Oculus Rift have been nothing more than adding support for it to existing games like Half Life 2 or Mirror’s Edge.

Below is a complete list of the prizes up for grabs:

Grand prize winners will receive:

• $10,000 cash prize.
• Oculus will pay for travel and lodging for 1 member of the winning team to attend IndieCade and exhibit at event (up to $2,000).
• An invitation to visit Oculus HQ to meet the Oculus team.
• Oculus will promote the content through social channels.
• Opportunity to exhibit winning content at IndieCade 2013.
• Coupon for submission to IndieCade 2014.
• A limited edition Oculus + IndieCade VR Jam 2013 t-shirt.

2nd place winners will receive:

• $5,000 cash prize.
• Oculus will promote the content through social channels.
• Opportunity to exhibit winning content at IndieCade 2013.
• Coupon for submission to IndieCade 2014.
• A limited edition Oculus + IndieCade VR Jam 2013 t-shirt.

3rd place winners will receive:

• $3,000 cash prize.
• Oculus will promote the content through social channels.
• Opportunity to exhibit winning content at IndieCade 2013.
• Coupon for submission to IndieCade 2014.
• A limited edition Oculus + IndieCade VR Jam 2013 t-shirt.

Each finalist will receive:

• $500 cash prize.
• Oculus will promote the content through social channels.
• Coupon for submission (any game) to IndieCade 2014.
• A limited edition Oculus + IndieCade VR Jam 2013 t-shirt.

The “VR Jam” begins on August 2^nd so if you are an indie dev, this could be your golden opportunity.  Get to working, what are you waiting for?