One of the most interesting booths at the Electronic Entertainment Expo trade show in early June was IndieCade’s collection of games from independent developers. A big part of the appeal was the station that hosted the Oculus Rift virtual-reality headset.
Now, Oculus and IndieCade are officially teaming up for a worldwide game-jam event. A game jam is when a bunch of developers get together to build a game from scratch in a short amount of time based on a theme. The VR Jam, as Oculus is calling it, will last for three weeks starting Aug. 2, and the theme is virtual reality.
Oculus and IndieCade are inviting “select developers” to the game jam, but anyone is welcome to participate in the event. The game makers will compete for over $50,000 in prizes. Oculus and IndieCade will judge the submissions, and the winners will later travel to Oculus’s headquarters to meet the development team.
Oculus Rift is one of the first affordable virtual-reality solutions for consumers. In August, the device raised over $2.4 million on Kickstarter. The company recently introduced its first high-definition prototype and is looking to launch the final product to consumer in the next few months.
IndieCade is an organization that helps smaller developers expose their games to bigger audiences. It holds international events and attends major expos like E3.