Aaron Long: Dev Unplugged Kicks Off: Pushing the Limits of HTML5 in Gaming and Music

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Dev Unplugged Kicks Off: Pushing the Limits of HTML5 in Gaming and Music

Today, we are announcing the launch of Dev Unplugged, a contest that challenges web developers to push the limits of a modern browser without the use of plug-ins. We believe that HTML5 and related technologies, in conjunction with faster and faster browsers, finally give developers the tools they need to create experiences that are as vivid, interactive and compelling as anything you have seen in native applications.

We hope that Dev Unplugged becomes a forum where developers around the world showcase their talents and what?s possible and inspire all of us to see where the web is going.

The Challenge

As we look around and see the amazing things that people are creating, we decided that two categories really stood out to us: Gaming and Music. So, in the spirit of the earliest days of the PC and choose your adventure games, you get to pick your challenge!

GAMING
Ready to unleash the next great tower defense game? Has your passion for side-scrolling platform games subsided not one bit since the days of Ninja Gaiden? We?re not looking for the most complicated game, but we are definitely looking for games that are fun and addictive.

And if that wasn?t enough to get you excited, here?s a news flash: Mike Mignola, the creator of Hellboy, has opened-up up a treasure trove of content for developers to use to create their HTML5 game! Smashing bad guys is way more fun when it?s with the Right Hand of Doom, right?

MUSIC
Ok, so maybe you?re more of a music lover. Do you sometimes stare hypnotized for 30 minutes at the music visualizations in your music player? Have an idea for creating an unbelievable HTML5 website for your band? Have you invented a new instrument that?s perfect for the web? Now?s your chance to show everyone what it means to experience music on the web.

And we?ve teamed-up with AWOLNATION and Ra Ra Riot to provide you with their most popular cuts to get started!

The Judges

To find the very best, we have assembled an amazing panel of judges that features experts in HTML5, design and user experience on the web. We will let community votes help us find the top-40 finalists. The panel will then be asked to judge the finalists according to creativity, quality of implementation and fit with the contest theme.

Judges: Andrew Dupont, Dion Almaer, Brad Neuberg, Allison House, Rob Ford, Elijah Manor, Ben Galbraith, Robert Nyman, Dominic Espinosa, Naveen Selvadurai, Grant Skinner and Remy Sharp

The Prizes

Finally, what?s a contest without some knock-me-over amazing prizes? After racking our brains and trying to put ourselves in the shoes of gaming-playing, music-loving web developers around the world, we landed on an impressive set of 9 featured prizes and 9 honorable mentions. The prizes include:

$40,000 in total prizes including $9,000 for the Grand Prize.
Front page exposure on theFWA.com and beautyoftheweb.com
Cool hardware: laptops and slates from Alienware, HP and ASUS
An all-expense paid trip to the Future of Web Apps Las Vegas with ?golden ticket? VIP access
?and more!

Developers, Start Your Engines!

Below are the dates that you should keep an eye on. We will have a private submission process for 4 weeks, at which point we will open up the submissions to the public so that they can check-out the submissions and vote on their favorites! Once submissions close, we will select the 40 finalists who the judging panel will review in order to find out who our big winners are!