Atari has announced that they will be holding a contest for all indie iOS developers to see who can come up with the best reimagined version of Pong. Recently, Atari has expressed a keen interest in the platform by releasing remakes of old classics such as Asteroids: Gunner and Breakout: Boost on the App Store. Hosting this contest also shows that they have recognized the blossoming talent in some of the indie devs on the platform.
The submitted games will go through two different rounds of voting. One game will be chosen by the community (that’s you guys!) and the other will be chosen by a panel of judges selected by Atari. The panel will include veterans of the industry such as Dave Castelnuovo, the creator of Pocket God, and Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari. The winner selected by the panel will receive up to $100,000 (US) as part of a publishing deal on the App Store. Atari has posted all of the official contest rules and regulations in PDF form here.
As awesome as this contest sounds, some developers have voiced their concern that this seems like a scheme. Mike Schramm of TUAW.com had this to say in an article posted about the contest yesterday:
The rules and regulations for the contest have made it online, and as developer Brian Robbins notes, they’re pretty heinous: Atari is basically asking devs to make games for them on spec, with no real indication or guarantee that they’ll make money, even if they win the contest.
Some sound advice for any developer looking to throw their hat into the ring in this competition would be to read over the rules and regulations thoroughly beforehand. While this might seem like a chance for a big break for one lucky little guy, potential contestants need to be aware of all stipulations prior to entering.
That said, we’d like to wish all of the contestants good luck! We can’t wait to see what they’ll come up with.
