Storms Publishing, a well-known publisher of hyper-casual mobile games (HCG) launched the second edition of Storm The HCG competition. It is a competition for indie mobile game developers. It gives them a chance to get a big break if they think their mobile game idea will take off. What’s great about the second edition is that it comes with a higher prize pool, amounting to $560,000, according to a press release.
The publishing company liked the “enthusiasm and promising results in the first run”. This is why they decided to bring it back and provide better prizes. Let’s discuss this competition in more detail.
The Prize Pool For Storm The World Competition
One of the main differences between the first and second editions is that the prize pool is higher. But this doesn’t mean the winner will get a higher cash prize. Storm Publishing will do things differently here, providing the sole winner with $100,000 for being the first game to get published. But instead of giving a prize for the second and third placer, the publisher will give cash prizes to up to 9 runner-ups.
The publishing company can give $50,000 in consolation prizes to the 9 other finalists, provided their game entry gets published. But aside from the winning prize, developers could also earn bonuses for other games that performed well during the testing. Indie developers can submit as many games as they want for the competition. They just have to make sure the game has not been tested by Storm Publishing first.
It doesn’t matter if the game has been published already. As long as Storm Publishing hasn’t tested it yet, it can still join the competition. They also need to make sure the game is available in either the Google Play Store or Apple App Store. The game also needs to have a playable demo and has already gone for the cost per installation tests and integration.
Who Are the Judges of the Competition?
The competition will be judged by senior industry leaders, including Facebook Gaming Product Manager, Andrew Mo, and Adjust Global VP of Sales Ender Özcan. The other judges will consist of Storm executives and management. The winner of the first edition’s competition was Kuyi Mobile, a Philippine-based gaming company. It bested 250 other developers and took home $120,000 as well as a publishing deal.
Storm The World Competition Timeline
The competition was announced in mid-July and the deadline for the final entry was last August 15, 2021. From August 16 to 31, the judges will be shortlisting all the entries, narrowing it down to the 10 best developers. After that, the final round will begin, starting on September 1 to 30, 2021. During this round, the top 10 developers will work hand-in-hand with Storm Publishing.
They will work with UA experts and run UA testing on the game. The winners and runner-ups are determined by the result of the testing. The criteria for winning will be based on the game’s originality, production quality, and market fit by the competition jury. Once winners have been determined in the Storm The World HCG competition, they will be announced by mid-October 2021.
Final Thoughts
Competitions like this are always a big boost since it helps indie developers get the break they need. It is also a great way to discover diamonds in the rough, which is why Storm Publishing does this kind of competition. Hopefully, more similar competitions will be established in the future. It will be a big help for many of the indie mobile game developers out there looking for their big break.
