XPRIZE Announces Video Game Design Challenge for Students
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 05/21/20
XPRIZE — the
organization known for designing and managing major prize
competitions to spur major technological advances — is launching
XPRIZE Connect, a new program to get young people to pursue careers
in STEM (and eventually become XPRIZE competitors themselves).
The
first challenge incorporates video game design. "Code
Games: A Global Game-Making Challenge,"
invites students ages 10 to 18 to come up with a video game following
one of three themes: exploration, environment and human equity. There
will be two age categories, for entrants between 10 and 13 and
entrants between 14 and 18. Tracks have been designated for
individuals and for teams, which can have up to four people.
In
the first phase, contestants can win one of numerous $1,000 prizes by
taking on the challenge of designing and developing an original video
game. Entry is free and submissions are due by Oct. 14, 2020. The
submission must either be a playable game made using any tool fitting
into the guidelines or a written video game design document that
clearly describes the overall vision for the game.
The
guidelines state that entries must follow one of these "streams":
- It
must be a written game design; or
- It
must be playable via Gamestar Mechanic, Scratch, The Endless Mission,
Unity or any other video game platform.
- The
entries will only compete against other entries in the same stream.
Following
the submission deadline, a panel of independent judges consisting of
video game experts and leaders in culture will identify the
competitors whose submissions qualify to move forward. In the second
round, grand prizes of $2,000 will go to the best games in each of
the thematic categories. Those will be scored based on creative
vision, engaging gameplay, balance and technical execution.
Support
is coming from Endless
Network,
which focuses on making technology accessible, fun and safe, and
E-Line
Media,
a video game developer that wants to help its gamers to explore
meaningful themes.
"We
live in a moment in time when we have a unique opportunity to
re-imagine the future, and who better to do that than the ones with
the most active imagination, our young generations," said
Anousheh Ansari, CEO of XPRIZE, in a statement. "This new
learning challenge will help us cultivate the vital skills of our
next generation of innovators, those who will be the inventors and
creators of the radical breakthroughs that will enable us to build
the hopeful and abundant future we all want to live in."
"Most
of the trends and critical questions about the future of learning
have been accelerated by COVID-19," added Emily Church,
executive director of education and learning at XPRIZE. "We want
young go-getters around the world to be inspired to learn about and
shape new technologies that can help build a better future for us
all."
Check
the Code
Games challenge website
for specifics on the
rules
and to register to participate.
About the Author
Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.