The Great Canadian Appathon Returns with a Vengeance
Nothing gets the blood pumping like a tall boy of energy drink and a good ol’ 48-hour hackathon.
XMG Studio, The Globe and Mail, and Electric Playground are the partners behind the Great Canadian Appathon 3. With a $25,000 grand prize, and potential employment opportunities with XMG, GCA3 continues to challenge students to create a mobile game within a 48-hour time span.
Students participating in the GCA3 will congregate towards their local HUBs in teams of up to four. There have been over 40 universities and colleges that chose to collaborate with the organizers of the GCA3 to host student teams in their facilities. Here’s a comprehensive list of their locations.
The judges for GCA3 have not been officially announced yet, but will include Tony Clement, President of the Treasury Board, and Bill Marshall, the founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Toronto International Film Festival.
“We expect nothing less than the students to emerge from GCA3 with learning more about commercial software development than any other experience in their student careers,” says Marshall.
By no means is that statement a stretch. This intense, compressed experience has resulted in the creation of some remarkable games. The first cohort of winners has ended up churning out games like SuperPunch, Valley Raid, and Plasmium. Criteria for the evaluation of these games include degree of innovation; fun and entertainment factor; level of art and design polish; and stability.
XMG is known for its Ghostbusters augmented reality game, as well as its fashion-driven Fashion Star Boutique.
The Great Canadian Appathon 3 will be starting on Friday, September 28 th at 5PM, and will last until Sunday, September 30th at 5PM. After this round, there will be three finalists who will compete live for the grand prize on November 8th, 2012. I’m absolutely stoked to see what this cohort of competitors is able to produce within that time frame.
In the case that you plan on participating: best of luck, and may the code be with you.
