Oculus Rift devs holding $50,000 game jam

The Oculus Rift is an amazing invention and is perhaps the first real step we've taken on the road to true virtual reality. However, as it stands, there isn't that much in the way of games to make use of the soon-to-be-released technology, but not for much longer. The developers of the headset, along with IndieCade have announced a VR game jam to help bring about new experiences to have on the Rift and the prize pool is said to be as big as $50,000.

So far the Oculus Rift has only been available as a “developer kit,” which is essentially, not a completely finished product, but for $300 you could get in on the action early – and presumably develop some games or experiences for it. However, most of the ones put forward so far have been ports of existing games. IndieCade and Oculus want to do something new and they want the community to help.

VR Jam sounds like something very tasty indeed.

“Participants will be challenged to build new, innovative virtual reality games and experiences designed specifically for the Oculus Rift. The team that develops the best new VR game will win a $10,000 cash prize, a trip to demo its game at IndieCade Festival 2013 to showcase its work, and an invitation to visit Oculus HQ to meet the Oculus team,” reads the Kickstarter update.

Other prizes include cash prizes, a chance to exhibit your work at the IndieCade 2013 show, free-tshirts and free promotion through Oculus “social channels.”

For full details and a chance to enter yourself, head over to the official VRjam page here.

The Rift was initially a Kickstarter success story, garnering nearly ten times its initial goal of $250,000, from almost 10,000 backers. With over 15,000 Oculus Rift headsets sent out to date, the developers have made a pretty penny off of this whole deal and now it's looking to give back with the game jam.

Kitguru Says: I'm glad to see this coming about – more games is more gooder. Don't tell the Mrs, but I'm saving up for one of these and an Omni treadmill. It's going to be epic.

[Thanks PCGamesN]

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