On December 11, the first XR Developer Challenge of PICO 2023 (hereinafter referred to as the "Challenge") held a closing ceremony in Beijing, announcing the official conclusion of the competition. At the event, 9 awards were announced, including the best game, the best innovative game, and the best MR game. The award-winning developers and contestants were invited to witness the birth of each award.
At the beginning of the event, Jacques Ma, Head of Pico OS Products, gave a speech to introduce the current status of the PICO developer platform to the public, emphasizing the importance of this challenge to the industry and PICO.
1. Developers actively registered, and 9 awards were announced on the spot.
This year's challenge is aimed at developers from all over the world, and has been held in China, Europe, North America, Southeast Asia, Japan and South Korea and other countries and regions. As a key competition area, the number of developers and teams registered in the China competition area reached 449, and after a one-month submission and online review, a total of 214 developers and teams successfully submitted 251 excellent proposals.
During the process, PICO provided platform, professional technology, financial support and other support for the participants of this challenge, and Intel, as a technology partner, also provided guarantees for the participants.
After layers of screening, the judges of the challenge organization selected the top five ranking awards and four track awards, including the best game, the best innovative game, the best MR game and the best gesture recognition game from 251 excellent proposals, and a total of 9 awards were successfully announced.
The list of award-winning developers and the winning entries are as follows.
PICO 2023 XR Developer Challenge Winners and Brief Introduction.
It is reported that in addition to receiving generous bonuses, the winners of this challenge will also have the opportunity to receive additional support such as guidance from technical experts, investment roundtable exchanges, PICO venture capital** and interview passes. Intel, the technical partner of the competition, will also provide more dimensional computing power support for the online operation of the award-winning entries in the future, and the operating environment equipped with Intel ARC DGPU graphics cards will also be opened to the developers of the challenge to jointly help the project land.
2. Surprisingly Winning: Retro pixel style and ancient Chinese architecture.
In this challenge, both the number of works submitted by the participants, as well as the quality and creativity of the works presented, have reached a new height.
Among them, "Pixelhack" developed by the Zuomu Interactive Entertainment team and "Wooden XR" developed by independent developers Mu Rongxuan and Li Guoliang won the championship and runner-up of the challenge respectively. In the judging session, these two works were unanimously recognized by the judges for their high degree of completion, unique art style, wonderful conception and excellent interactive experience.
As a 2-4 player online shooter, Pixelhack's unique retro pixel art style allows players to instantly travel back to the arcade of their childhood, as if they played the VR version of the pixel art game that was popular in their childhood, and obtained a new visual experience. In addition, one of the highlights of the game is that it can run both VR and MR versions on the PICO 4 series, which satisfies the preferences of different players and fully demonstrates the XR capabilities of PICO 4.
pixelhack》
At present, Pixelhack has opened the game of 4 attack forms such as submachine guns, laser guns, sniper rifles, and air guns** and 15 enemies with different combat abilities (including 3 game level bosses). The game also has a 15-20 minute participation version, and the mode design of PVE combined with the points of the competition leaderboard has certain cooperative and confrontational attributes.
Wood XR is an interactive application based on XR devices, which can provide users with an interactive experience of traditional Chinese ancient architecture. From the carving of wooden parts to the construction of individual building models to the planning and design of the overall building complex, it can not only help users understand the structure and characteristics of ancient Chinese architecture, but also provide users with the whole process experience of building ancient Chinese architecture.
Through an XR experience similar to that of real buildings, Wood XR helps users understand and appreciate the aesthetics and craftsmanship of traditional Chinese ancient architecture, and effectively enhances users' awareness and interest in ancient architectural culture.
It is worth mentioning that the application also combines a variety of cutting-edge technologies such as mixed reality, gesture tracking, and eye tracking, which not only allows users to build virtual buildings in real space, but also greatly simplifies the operation process, allowing users to complete the operation more conveniently only through the interaction of eyes and gestures.
3. PICO works with developers to push the XR industry into a new stage.
As a world-renowned XR brand, PICO has maintained rapid growth in the past two years, and its annual sales in 2022 have increased by 8 times compared to before. In addition, IDC data shows that in 2022, the market share PICO ranked in the world.
2. In the first half of 2023, PICO will rank first in the domestic VR market with 587% is significantly ahead of its peers. Behind these achievements, it is inseparable from the support of a huge user group and many developers to build a content ecosystem.
PICO has always attached great importance to the majority of developer partners, and has successively launched the "PICO Developer Program" and "PICO Creator Incentive Program" to help developers grow from the dimensions of hardware, technology, and marketing.
At present, the XR industry is entering a new stage, beginning to transition from the "VR" stage that emphasizes the virtual to the "VR+MR" stage that integrates the virtual and the real. Breakthroughs in optical display, chip computing power, environmental perception, human-computer interaction and other technologies are also accelerating the development of the XR industry. This change can not only provide users with more diversified product value, but also give developers more creative space to a certain extent. Developers from all walks of life have the opportunity to be part of the XR development landscape and create new opportunities and markets together.
The challenge hosted by PICO is precisely to drive more developers to invest in the XR industry, jointly develop new fields, and grow together with PICO and the industry.
With the successful conclusion of PICO's first 2023 XR Developer Challenge, many outstanding potential applications and development talents have begun to emerge, and with more related competitions held, not only will users steadily harvest batches of in-demand and creative XR applications, but the industry will also continue to usher in more long-term builders with technology and ideas.
When the development of the XR industry enters a new stage, the feedback from the market will surprise all practitioners.