The Protos will be held in the Blossom Ballroom in the historic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, the site of the first Academy Awards in 1929. The award show will be held on September 19th to coincide with the Oculus Connect conference, with the venues being right across the street from one another. The Virtual Reality Awards—another award ceremony focused on the VR industry—will be hosted virtually through Riftmax in November.
The Virtual Reality Foundation has extended the submission deadline to September 2nd.
“Based on feedback from the community, some developers have asked about submitting unfinished works in progress or proofs of concept. As an award show in a rapidly developing space, we encourage all developers to submit their VR experiences, even in an unpolished state, as the awards themselves are recognizing innovative prototypes, as well as fully realized content,” said Virtual Reality Foundation co-founder Cosmo Scharf.
Developers can submit experiences through the Proto Awards website to compete for recognition in the following categories:
- Best GUI
- Best Art Direction
- Best Live Action Experience
- Best Interaction Design
- Best Gameplay
- Best Social Experience
- Best Sound Design
- Best Score
- Most Transportive Experience
- Most Innovative Experience
- Best Overall Experience
The Virtual Reality Foundation says that the Protos are made possible by a founding sponsorship from Nvidia. VRLA, SVVR, and SFVR are also sponsoring the event.
Full Disclosure: Ben Lang is on the Virtual Reality Foundation’s Board of Governors who are responsible for selecting nominees.