Announcing the #GlobalGamers Challenge
Build epic Flutter games to assist in the battle to defend the planet
We know Flutter devs love a good challenge, so just in time for the new year, we’re excited to announce the next Flutter challenge!
The Global Gamers Challenge is an 8 week contest to design, build, and publish sustainable games, sponsored by Flutter and Global Citizen. The contest’s winners will receive a trip to NYC in September 2024 to meet some of the Flutter team for a day of workshops and mentorship, and then celebrate their achievements with up to 60,000 other Global Citizens at Global Citizen Festival 2024.
What are sustainable games?
Sustainable games use the power of play to inspire positive environmental action. Imagine Candy Crush, but instead of crushing candies, you’re crushing plastic pollution! Or, picture a game like Super Dash, but instead of collecting acorns, you’re in Dash’s home figuring out how to cool the house by optimizing a path for airflow using windows instead of the AC. Here are some more ideas inspired by Global Citizen campaigns running right now:
- Encourage a reduction in home energy use
Data shows that American homes average three times more electricity use than typical homes across the rest of the globe. Can you build a game that helps to reduce reliance on inefficient energy sources? - Encourage a reduction in use of single-use plastics
Southeast Asia has some of the highest levels of plastic pollution in the world. Consider building a game that encourages someone to make a swap, like opting for a reusable water bottle over a single-use one. - Encourage use of public transportation for short distances and overland options for longer distances
Europe is home to many of the world’s greatest public transportation systems. Effective games can encourage people to use local public transit for shorter distances, and overland transport, like trains rather than planes) for longer distances.
We’re confident that games can encourage players to take small, real life, actions that add up to a large impact for the environment. In fact, if you’d like to take direct action on these items, check out the campaigns Global Citizen is running now.
Why join the Global Gamers Challenge?
Defend the planet
This contest was inspired by the Playing for the Planet Alliance, a United Nations-facilitated alliance of 50 game studios and companies, including Google, with a mission to reduce the industry’s environmental impact and leverage the power of gaming to bring awareness to and coordinate action for important environmental issues like climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution.
Games produced by members of the Playing for the Planet Alliance have a combined reach of over 1 billion people. Through the Alliance’s flagship initiative, the Green Game Jam, participating games have created real-world impact by raising funds to plant 2.75 million trees and raised roughly $1,500,000 USD to protect wildlife and support environmental causes.
We’ve partnered with the Playing for the Planet Alliance to source best practices for environmental games and added them to the resources kit provided as part of this challenge. This is your chance to build something that helps protect our planet!
Learn something new
Whether you’re a Flutter developer who’s new to games, a game developer who is new to Flutter, or someone new to both game development and Flutter, you’re bound to learn a few tricks while creating a positive impact on the world.
Details
Timeline
All projects must be submitted by March 5, 2024, 2:59pm PT (GMT -8). A Top 20 will be announced in late March 2024, and final winners will be announced in May 2024.
Submission guidelines
Registration and entry submission instructions can be found at DevPost.
Awards
Winners will be judged based on criteria like:
- Originality and creativity
- Sustainable action and story
- Use of animation
- Effective Multi-platform deployment
We won’t just award great coding ability, though. We also have prizes for great ideas, demo videos, educational content for your game, and more!
Resources
We’ve compiled a bunch of resources to help you build a game, including a guide to navigating this challenge, kind of like a game map. It shows you the resources you need, helps you become a Global Citizen through a new learning journey in the Global Citizen application, and contains instructions on how to register and submit your game.
Teams
We recommend completing this challenge as part of a team. When you register for the challenge on Devpost, you’ll be able to share your skillset, your team status, and your ideas.
So, whether you have a great idea but need teammates with technical skills to bring it to life, or if you have the technical skills, but want a great idea, make sure to fill out your profile accordingly and then peruse the participants tab and look for folks whose profile details match what you’re looking for!
We’re particularly excited for the ideas that will come from technologists and activists working together towards a common goal. If you need extra support in finding a teammate, read over this help article.
Finally, note that teams can be any size, but only 3 people from a team will be able to travel to New York City should the project be selected as a finalist.
Get started and stay connected
Check out the official contest site at flutter.dev/global-gamers for everything you need to know. You can also visit DevPost to register and submit your game.
Submissions close on March 5th, so don’t wait! We can’t wait to see what you build!
