Providing “access, support, and savings” to qualifying indie developers, the new Oculus Start program hopes to encourage and enable the development of great apps from those just getting started in VR. The program, which was introduced in a brief post on the Oculus developer blog, has begun to accept applications via this form.
Oculus is aiming to reduce the barriers to entry into VR development for small teams. “If your first app is underway, we can help you optimize for more success in this project and your next,” writes the team. “Just as we’re scaling VR through our devices, we’re scaling support to the developer ecosystem.”
The three pillars of access, support, and savings are detailed above the application page, including examples of what benefits they “may include”, such as development kits for new and existing hardware, access to beta tools and services, dedicated technical support, 1:1 meetings with Oculus’ veteran VR team, one year free Unity Plus license or a royalty free Unreal license, and Oculus wallet credits to “get to know the Oculus Store better.”
The terms page reveals some eligibility details, for instance applicants must have published an app on the Oculus Store or other VR platform by the time they apply, and must not have received previous VR funding of over $10,000 “from a platform (e.g., without limitation, Oculus, Google, Microsoft, Valve, Steam, HTC)”, venture capital, or crowdsourcing.