Last year marked HTC’s very first Vive Developer Awards (VDAs), which saw tens of thousands of dollars go to VR app developers across a number of categories. Now, HTC has announced the nominees for this year’s VDAs who will be in competition to win $50,000 in first place prize money.

HTC has established 5 categories for this year’s VDAs including entertainment, education, arts & culture, enterprise and arcade. A total of 10 nominees came out of the initial evaluations, a review process held by a panel of HTC employees that looked at the games’ overall virtual reality experience and engagement metrics  such as total downloads, total user sessions and overall time played.

Without further ado, here’s this year’s VDA nominees:

image courtesy HTC

Entertainment

Education

Arts & Culture

Enterprise

Arcade

Winners will be announced at a special event on March 19th coinciding with the Game Developers Conference (GDC).

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First place for each category will receive $50k, which includes a studio profile video produced by the Vive team, “priority access” to new developer hardware, and a shiny trophy. Second place gets a financial award of $20,000, and all of the above (besides the $50K of course).

Last year’s first-prize winners included Apollo 11 VR (2016), Fantastic Contraption (2016), Cloudlands: VR Minigolf (2016), and Allumette (2016).

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Jean-Sebastien Perron

    Wake me up when HTC release proper VR controller or when they sell their deprecated Pro model at today market price and not 90’s prices. And never forget that they sell defect HMD that they wont repair or refund and that is illegal in civilized country. That is why they only sell their stand alone model in communist dictature china.

    • JJ

      Theyre controllers only come in second behind the rift and thats only for some user, aside from that I’d way rather have vive controllers that wont snap in two compared to WMR controllers that will break in the winds breeze.

      And when you say 90’s prices your contradicting yourself…. because of inflation prices of things have continuously increased over the past few decades. So by your logic HTC has ridiculously low priced units because prices in the 90’s were lower…

      oh and did you hear about all the Rifts being bricked yesterday because of an expired certificate file…. hmm im pretty happy i went with a vive because wahts worse, a few bricked HMD’s or EVERY SINGLE RIFT Bricked

      • Jean-Sebastien Perron

        I know my Oculus bricked yesterday and this morning, I felt so lost that I bought the Asus MR and will be receiving it today. I cant live without VR. It s fun to troll each other about brand of VR, but in reality they are all awesome.

  • ymo1965

    The only announcement I give a rats @rse about is when the vive pro and wireless adaptor are released. Get on with it ffs HTC :/

    • Jean-Sebastien Perron

      I was also interested by it, then I saw this video on youtube : ” My Experience With HTC Vive Customer Service: A Nightmare “

      • Thanks for posting, just watched the video. So, basically the HTC Vive warranty is not worth the paper it is written on. Great.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymhQxBalzCE

      • Helen

        Gℴogle pays to new employee $98 per/hr to complete some work off a home computer … Labor only for only few hours & enjoy greater time together with your family . Any person can also join online jobs plan!!last Saturday I purchased a brand new Lotus Elise just after earning $9489 past five weeks .it’s certainly high-quality process however you will no longer forgive yourself if you don’t read it.!hf752e:∬∬∬ http://GoogleNetworkMoneyMakingOnline/get/$99/perhour… ♥♥s♥y♥a♥f♥o♥♥♥b♥♥e♥g♥♥♥y♥♥♥t♥♥d♥g♥♥♥f♥♥k♥l♥♥s♥♥t♥♥k♥♥b♥c♥o♥♥♥c♥p♥♥♥y♥o:::!hf34a:fzhys

  • Martin Rowe

    I’m disappointed by the lack of SteamHammerVR on this short-list!

  • Mateusz Pawluczuk

    No need for negativity. I like all these award initiatives. Each of them gets more and more prestigous with every passing year and they’re important for brand creation. Devs also like to recieve some recognition, plus it might expose users to titles they were not familiar with. Last but not least by dividing awards into 5 categories VDA’s promote VR as something not only meant for gaming. Howg! :)