Colorado Lottery Announces GameJam Hackathon with ETHDenver to Support the Outdoors and Schools
Governor Polis will kick-off the first-ever hackathon for new game development as Colorado reimagines the Lottery. GameJam will run July 31- Aug. 9, with cash prizes.
It’s a GameJam! The Colorado Lottery is opening its digital doors to local and global technology developers to participate in the first-ever game development hackathon. The goal of the virtual event is to create new Lottery games that will excite and entertain a new, broad and diverse group of Coloradans to engage them in supporting the great outdoors and schools.
Innovating with partners ETHDenver, Chainlink, and IGT, participants of GameJam will create and pitch their proposed new game for a chance to win a top prize of $10,000, with a second prize of $5,000 and a $2,500 third prize. Also, there is a separate, additional prize category, sponsored by ETH and Chainlink that will be awarded for games that both meet the original guidelines and are completed using Web3. Web 3.0 is an evolution in the underlying infrastructure of the Internet, where applications run on top of decentralized networks that allows peer-to-peer services, data ownership by users, and trustless guarantees. The additional prizes are 1st place $5,000, 2nd place $2,500, and 3rd place $1,000.
Marking the Lottery’s first-ever public private partnership and hackathon, these critical partnerships are helping connect the Lottery with the global talent in the Web3 community to collaborate to develop new game prototypes. Organizations can contact the Lottery at gloria.reiter@state.co.us if they would like to be an additional sponsor and add to the prizes.
Registration is open to developers from Colorado and across the globe. Participants can register at http://jams.gamejolt.io/colotterygamejam. Registration will remain open until 8 p.m. MDT, Friday, July 31, at the end of the opening ceremonies.
By reimagining its game offerings, the Lottery hopes to appeal to more adult Coloradans of diverse ages and backgrounds. In using technology to draw in more players, the Lottery can reach its $1 billion revenue goal to fund outdoor recreation, land conservation and schools in Colorado, along with its commitment to responsible gaming.
“With a digital technology company launched every 72 hours in our state, Colorado is home to a cornucopia of talent and dynamic developers that creates rich soil for innovation,” said Tom Seaver, director of the Colorado Lottery. “We are excited to leverage the creativity of these local resources and innovation from around the globe to create new game ideas, all to support our beneficiaries.”
The State of Colorado was the first government to sponsor a hackathon track nationally at the ETHDenver BUIDLathon in February of this year.
“Last year we launched Colorado Digital Services to begin developing critical public-private technology relationships to position our state government as a tech leader, but more importantly to better serve our population through technology,” said Colorado Gov. Jared Polis.
“The Lottery’s GameJam is our most recent shining example of another ‘first’ for Colorado,” said Lu Córdova, executive director of the Department of Revenue. “This event demonstrates how our state is in the middle of a digital evolution to make the state of Colorado the most tech-forward state in the country, while supporting our schools and the great outdoors.”
The GameJam hackathon will kick-off with a virtual opening ceremony on Friday, July 31. The competition will continue through Aug. 9, with a closing ceremony on Aug. 10.
Opening Ceremony
When: July 31, 6–8 p.m.
Where: Zoom meeting https://zoom.us/j/97049489094
What: Participants will learn the parameters and guidelines for the competition.
Who: Colorado Lottery’s director Tom Seaver, ETHDenver, Chainlink, and IGT will discuss the inspiration for the GameJam and how the prototypes will be used to develop one or more new games.
GameJam Registration: http://jams.gamejolt.io/colotterygamejam
VIP Guest Speakers:
- Governor Jared Polis will welcome participants and discuss how the Lottery’s GameJam fits into the state’s vision to reimagine government.
- Lu Córdova, Executive Director of the Department of Revenue, will explain how digital transformation is being applied to everyday services.
- Vitalik Buterin, Co-Founder of Ethereum, will talk about the future of money in mainstream business.
About Colorado Lottery
Since 1983, the Colorado Lottery has returned more than $3.5 billion to outdoor projects through Great Outdoors Colorado, the Conservation Trust Fund, and Colorado Parks & Wildlife. Proceeds from sales of Colorado Lottery games — Scratch, Powerball, Mega Millions, Colorado Lotto+, Lucky for Life, Cash 5, and Pick 3 — enhance, protect, improve parks, trails, and open space in Colorado as well as contribute to the Building Excellent Schools Today (BEST) program. For more information, visit coloradolottery.com.
About ETHDenver
ETHDenver is the world’s largest annual web3 #BUIDLathon and Community Gathering. The 2020 event took place February 14–16 in Denver, Colorado and hosted 2450+ blockchain enthusiasts, developers and community members from 73 countries and 48 U.S. states. To learn more about ETHDenver, visit ethdenver.com.
About Chainlink
Chainlink is a decentralized blockchain abstraction layer that enables the creation of universally connected smart contracts. Chainlink gives smart contracts across all blockchains access to secure and reliable data inputs and outputs. It works with large enterprises including Google, Oracle, and SWIFT and leading blockchain projects such as Ethereum, Polkadot, Synthetix, and Aave. One of Chainlink’s popular solutions is Chainlink VRF, a random number generation feature that enables blockchain smart contracts to access provably-fair and verifiable randomness. For more information, visit the Chainlink website.
