Pong® Indie Developer Challenge!
The Pong® Indie Developer Challenge!
Following the success of Atari’s recent indie-developed mobile titles, including Asteroids: Gunner™, Atari 's Greatest Hits and Breakout: Boost™, the Pong® Indie Developer Challenge opens the door for up-and-coming developers to deliver the next smash hit.
Atari is looking for some great developers to help bring Pong® to the App Store!
Reimagine Atari’s classic Pong® for a chance to win up to $100,000 and see your vision come to life! In addition to a full revenue-share publishing agreement including marketing and PR support, cash prizes include $50,000 for 1st place, $37,500 for 2nd place, $15,000 for 3rd place, and $5,000 to each of the remaining seven finalists.
Submit your original take on Pong® for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices today. Finalists will launch their games on the App Store later this year under the Atari brand, along with a publishing agreement and full launch support.
It’s your time to remake a classic!
Finalists Announced!
A big CONGRATULATIONS to all of our finalists in the Pong® Indie Developer Challenge! We are excited to review the submissions of all our finalists.
Each of the submissions selected combines innovation, creativity, fun and originality – key qualities of the original PONG. We now welcome everyone to vote on their favorite submissions below as we move to the final section of finalist rank!
We would also like to extend our deep gratitude to all of those who did not make it to the final round for their participation, creativity and hard work in our 40th anniversary event. Your submissions were all truly an inspiration, but we could only select and support a select few of the top entries.
From all of us at Atari, we'd like to once again congratulate our finalists and look forward to announcing the winners!
Judging
What we're looking for in your Pong® game:
Fun - Orginality - Visual Appeal - Marketability
Judges
| Atari The original innovator of video gaming, founded in 1972, Atari owns and/or manages a portfolio of more than 200 games and franchises, including world renowned brands like Asteroids®, Centipede®, Missile Command®, Pong®, Test Drive®, Backyard Sports®, Deer Hunter®, Ghostbusters®, and Rollercoaster Tycoon®. Atari capitalizes on these powerful properties by delivering compelling games online (i.e. browser, Facebook® and digital download), on smartphones and tablets and other connected devices. The Company also develops and distributes interactive entertainment for video game consoles from Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony. As a licensor, Atari extends its brand and franchises into other media, merchandising and publishing categories. Atari has offices in Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Lyon and London. |
| Dave Castelnuovo Dave Castelnuovo, is a consultant and entrepreneur who founded Bolt Creative in 2001 as a flash development company and game studio. The San Francisco-based business branched out into iPhone games with Pocket God in 2008 and launched a comic series later in 2010, becoming one of the most successful iOS games in App Store history. Dave has a long history of game and interactive development, consulting with companies such as Electronic Arts, Sony, and Yahoo. |
| Mike Schramm Mike Schramm is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer, gamer, and general all around doer. Currently he is a lead editor in AOL's Tech Media group, writing about Apple, technology, and video games for The Unofficial Apple Weblog and Joystiq. He also hosts the Incredible Podcast, and can often be heard on other fine podcasts around the Internet. Previously, he was a lead blogger on the popular WoW Insider, and also helped found Massively.com. His expertise lies with PC and MMO games, iOS games, and Apple products. |
| Nolan Bushnell Nolan Bushnell is the founder of Atari Corporation and Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theater, and is justifiably revered as the Father of the Videogame Industry. Over the past 20 years, Bushnell has founded numerous other companies, including Catalyst Technologies, the first technology incubator; Etak, the first car navigation system whose mapping is still the basis for car navigation systems today; Androbot, a personal robotics company; and ByVideo, the first online ordering system (1982), which allowed customers to order and pay for product from kiosks. Additionally, he has provided consulting services to numerous corporations, including Commodore International, IBM, Cisco Systems and US Digital Communications. |
 | David Whatley David Whatley is President and CEO of Simutronics Corp., a pioneer in online game development since 1986. David has been the designer on ground breaking titles from GemStone III all the way through the development of HeroEngine that powers Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO. In 2008 David began developing iPhone games under the banner of Critical Thought Games which gave rise to the hit tower defense games geoDefense and geoDefense Swarm and is now bringing the fabeled Temple Run franchise to Android and other platforms. |
Key Dates in 2012
- Contest Begins: Feb 28
- Entry Period Ends: Apr 15
- Semi-Finalists Announced: May 1
- Semi-Finalists Submit Demo and Video: June 5
- Finalists Announced: Jun 26
- Completed Mobile App Submission: Jul 6
- Winners Announced: Aug 2
Prize Summary
- 1st Place - $50,000*
- 2nd Place - $37,500*
- 3rd Place - $15,000*
- Remaining Finalists - $5,000* each
In addition to the cash prizes above, all finalists receive a full revenue-sharing publishing agreement with full launch support.
*Cash prize awarded upon announcement of winners. Revenue share starts upon game release. For further clarification please refer to contest rules.