Vive Developer Jam

VIVE Developer Jam - London 24-26 Jan 2020
FAQ

Think of it as a hackathon focused on developing prototypes. A hackathon (“hack” + “marathon”) is an event that brings together software developers, designers, researchers, and specialists to create exciting software solutions in a short fixed duration. Some can last a week, others are much shorter, often 24-48 hours straight to produce a prototype. It presents an amazing opportunity for individuals of all backgrounds to come together, test new ideas and develop themselves professionally.

During the event, participants will have the chance to brainstorm collaboratively and come up with solutions, projects, games and applications. The aim is to have fun, learn new things and network with other brilliant people. So whether you’re a business professional, a student or a part-time developer, feel free to join us!

The goal of this weekend jam is to have people with a wide range of skills all in the same room, working together to push the limits of XR by using the very latest Vive hardware and SDKs.

What makes Vive Developer Jam different is that participants will be able to get their hands on the latest high-end HTC Vive Hardware (Vive Pro Eye, Lip Tracking modules, Vive Trackers) and try different Vive SDKs that utilize Hand/Eye/Lip Tracking, etc in order to build AR/VR applications and games and win prizes.

We expect that you will develop a working prototype that will represent your idea using HTC VIVE products and technologies. We know it takes longer than a weekend to build great solutions, but we are sure you will build something great!

This event is organised by HTC Vive in partnership with Admix, the company behind developer community site VR/AR Pioneers and Goldsmiths University of London, a global leader in distance and flexible study, offering degree programmes to over 50,000 students in over 180 countries.

We will also be joined by a number of other partners who will be on hand to provide their expertise, alongside a number of mentors including experienced developers, artists & designers.

The event will take place at the iconic St James Hatcham Building, a deconsecrated church that is now part of Goldsmiths, University of London from Friday, January 24 to Sunday, January 26, 2020.

It includes a large, open space that has been used extensively for exhibitions and hackathons, including hosting London’s largest Global Game Jam site several years in a row.

The St James Hatcham Building is located on St James’s road, near Goldsmiths University Campus. If you are traveling from the New Cross Gate train station turn off New Cross road and walk up St James. The St James Hatcham Building is at the end of the road.

For more information please refer to the website: https://www.gold.ac.uk/find-us/places/st-james-hatcham-building/

You have to be at least 18 years old at the time of the event.

We accept a wide range of applicants, from working professionals and entrepreneurs to academics and students. Come to hack with HTC Vive hardware and tech all in the name of doing something crazy and helpful that will push the limits of XR. 

Please keep in mind that some experience in developing AR/VR apps and games would be beneficial. There is a limited number of spaces, therefore we will carefully select a specific number of participants.

That's the best part, it’s totally FREE.
There are no fees to attend the event as it is financed entirely by HTC Vive and our awesome sponsors!  We will also provide you with plenty of food, drinks and swags. We'll make sure you're never hungry.

You'll have free access to our next-gen HTC VIVE hardware and some of the top tech companies will be sending their employees to act as mentors and help you build awesome prototypes. 

We know that since this is a free event, some people may register and get selected but not show up. Therefore if you are unsure about whether or not you can make it to the Vive Developer Jam, please send us an email or cancel your registration ticket so that we can offer your spot to someone else. 

Although it’s not really about winning, offering prizes is our way of encouraging innovation, and perhaps giving you a little something in return for your time.

All participants will get swags and since it’s always interesting to hear feedback on your projects from people involved in the XR industry and academia, we will have a credible panel of judges to assess the projects and pick the winning team that will receive the grand prizes. These will be announced soon.

Absolutely not! However, we do encourage you to take the chance, because everyone has a chance to win prizes, whether professional hacker or first-timer. We mainly want you to have a great time, experiment with the HTC Vive hardware and SDKs and learn new things. Just make yourself comfortable and we’re sure that you’ll take an awesome idea from concept to reality and enjoy yourself.

The capacity for guests at the Vive Developer Jam is very limited. However, you are invited back on Sunday afternoon to see the results of all of the hard work. 

All participants must be on-site unless given specific permission from organizers. Those with special permission are disqualified from being considered for prizes. 

If you’re contemplating judging, volunteering, or mentoring or if your company is interested in becoming a sponsor or partner, send us an email at vivedeveloperjam@htc.com

Yes, although everyone interested in attending the event is welcome to submit an application, we will ask you some questions to better understand if you are a good match for this event and you will be notified regarding whether or not you are eligible to attend.

We want to make sure that everyone who attends is eager to hack and share knowledge and can produce a prototype during the weekend. Therefore, during the registration process, you will be asked a series of questions about your background that will help us better assess if you are a good match for this event. After reviewing your registration application you will be notified about whether or not you are eligible to attend.

Make sure you don’t book your transportation tickets before you get a final confirmation from our team.

We will have rolling admissions. You will receive an email from us to notify you about your acceptance status. Applications are open until the time we are near our limit of 50 participants.

We want to know more about you and what will drive you to start and continue hacking for the whole weekend. If there’s something about Vive Developer Jam in particular that you’re excited about, we’d love to hear about that too!

Although we do not want to limit your creativity, we expect that you will develop a working prototype that will represent your idea using HTC VIVE products and technologies. Therefore, we need you to create something using any of the provided HTC Vive devices and at least one of the available Vive SDKs that can be found at https://developer.vive.com/.

You are allowed to use both original and sourced (non-original) assets, provided that all sourced (non-original) assets must be noted. You are free to use both paid and free assets from any asset store. 

Nevertheless, the best way to win is with original work and we really want to see interesting mechanics above all. The best source of original work is new ideas, enrich yourself and the jam by meeting new people.

HTC Vive and the organizers will take no ownership in anything built. It’s up to the team members to decide if they want to share their projects. We encourage any prototypes created during the Vive Developer Jam to be openly shared with other participants after the end of the event to push the limits of XR. Making code open source is not required to participate in the event. 

We want to avoid any potential for IP disputes. After all, we expect most projects created over the weekend to be in a preliminary phase which may not be suitable for IP protection. 

Traditionally, the idea behind similar events is that you are creating a prototype during the weekend. However, we want to encourage you to explore ideas before the event and learn more about what you can do with the HTC Vive SDKs. Therefore, during the hackathon you will be free to integrate new technologies such as eye-tracking to an existing application/game you have been working on or build a new demo based on existing work that changes it significantly, introducing for example a new interaction method. We are also not going to limit the inclusion of helper libraries, asset packages, etc. as long as they do not provide an unfair advantage when creating gameplay mechanics and you let us know before you submit the deliverables.

Based on the available space of the venue, we can support up to 9 teams of 6 people. Each team is going to have a dedicated tracking area with Vive Base stations.

Yes, but every team member has to register for the event individually as there will be no option to sign up as a team. During the registration process you will be asked if you plan to join as part of a team and provide details about the team. One participant cannot represent a group to register for the event.

If you are still looking for a team, don’t worry, we will have a team building session at the event. To make sure that all resources can be shared across different teams we encourage you to participate and join a team.

You and your intended teammates should all apply individually. But if you get an invitation and some of your teammates don’t, send us an email at vivedeveloperjam@htc.com and we’ll try to sort things out.

Again, the application does not include the option for team registration.

You can join any team or create your own. If you don't have any idea yet, other hackers and the workshop presentations will inspire you. If you don’t have a team now, that’s okay! We’ll have team formation and ideation events geared towards helping you find people to work with.

Although we will provide you with HTC Vive hardware devices such as Vive Pro Eye, Vive trackers and Lip Tracking modules, we encourage you to bring your desktops, laptops and monitors. We will try to get some extra hardware from sponsors for participants who do not have any equipment or are unable to bring it. If the supply of hardware does not meet the demand we will ask teams to share the equipment. 

Corsair will be the official PC hardware partner providing participants with equipment they can use. Each team will have access to a Corsair One Pro.

However, we advise participants to bring extra hardware to work on. Although laptops are portable, you are free to plug-in a desktop PC. Please limit the number of monitors that you bring as space is limited. You will be provided with a limited number of power ports (outlets), what you do with it is up to you. Our suggestion is to bring your own extension cords to attach to the venue outlets. The venue will be providing WiFi for the event. 

Participants should pre-install the frameworks, tools and game engines of their choice and download any assets they may use during the weekend. We will send an email with the tools they should pre-install.

You are also free to bring any accessories/props and attach Vive Trackers to them to bring them into your virtual world! From tennis rackets to lightsabers, the possibilities are endless! As this is an overnight event that runs the entire duration of it, please make sure you bring a sleeping bag and/or a sleeping mat with you. There will be a dedicated sleeping room for you to relax. We’ll provide you with food, tea and coffee, but if you want other things then bring them along.

Don’t worry if you forget something, there will be tons of stuff to do.  We will inform you about anything additional you need to bring closer to the event.

All food across the weekend will be provided. That is: lunch and dinner on Saturday, breakfast and lunch on Sunday. We’ll provide food for all meals from Saturday’s breakfast to Sunday’s lunch. If you have dietary restrictions, we’ll try our best to accommodate them, but please make sure you provide this information upon registering.

Of course, we will make sure that you don’t run out of energy during this intense hacking period! There will always be coffee and snacks provided in a dedicated room. 

The venue will be engineered to avoid this problem. Each team will be provided with a specified tracking area configured not to interfere with other teams tracking areas. If additional space is required for teams using Vives, we will direct you as to where to put up your lighthouses.

This is a weekend jam and although everyone is welcome for any amount of time, applicants who intend to hack across both days will be prioritised. 

No, it is not a requisite to stay over. If you would like to stay though, feel free to bring sleeping bags, pillows, and a change of clothes.

If you need to rest or sleep we will have a quiet little room for that purpose. However, we do not provide any sleeping equipment, so please bring a sleeping bag or whatever else you need to sleep comfortably.

The plan is for the hacking is going to finish at 3pm on Sunday,  January 26. Afterwards, the final presentations and award ceremony will be held. We are planning to finish at around 5pm. A schedule will be announced soon.

At the end of the Vive Developer Jam, the prototypes created need to be shown to other participants and the judges. So, whatever platform/technology you built your game on needs to be demonstrated to others. 

Final presentations are limited to a 5-minute pitch and possible Q&A from the judges.

This event is free to participants so that the organizers can make the event as open and inclusive as possible. Unfortunately, we do not offer any reimbursement for travel expenses.

Email us: vivedeveloperjam@htc.com 

Play with us on Twitter: #ViveDeveloperJam, #htcvive, #HTCVIVEProEye, @htcvive, @admixco, @GoldsmithsUoL, @CORSAIR, #CORSAIR

Please email us at vivedeveloperjam@htc.com if you’re in any way confused or concerned! We’d love to help you out :)