dev.to staff Published on Apr 2 • 4 min read

Join us for the Alibaba Cloud Web Game Challenge: $3,000 in Prizes!

We are thrilled to partner with Alibaba Cloud for a new DEV challenge.

Running through April 13, the Alibaba Cloud Web Game Challenge invites you experience the power of Alibaba Cloud services and push the boundaries of browser-based gaming.

There is one prompt for this challenge but three opportunities to win from our $3,000 prize pool!

We hope you give it a try.

Our Prompt

Your mandate is to build a robot-themed web game that utilizes Alibaba Cloud services.

Your game should feature robots in some creative way while showcasing the many products Alibaba Cloud has to offer. Whether you're creating robot battles, robot-building simulations, robot-assisted puzzles, or any other robotic-themed adventure, we want to see how you leverage Alibaba Cloud's infrastructure to create engaging gaming experiences.

Let your imagination run wild!

Multiple Submissions Welcome!

We encourage you to explore different game formats and mechanics to increase your chances of winning! Each unique submission will be judged independently, so you can even iterate on a previous submission by changing the format or features to create a new entry. For example, you can submit a single-player and multi-player version of a game as two separate submissions.

The more innovative approaches you try, the better your odds of winning!

Prizes

We'll be selecting three winners for our one prompt, and each winner will receive:

$1,000 USD
6-month DEV++ Membership
Exclusive DEV Badge

All Participants with a valid submission will receive a completion badge on their DEV profile.

How To Participate

In order to participate, you will need to sign up for Alibaba Cloud with this specific link and input credit card details to access your free trial.

When you're ready to submit, publish a post using the submission template provided here and ensure your game is deployed on Alibaba Cloud.

We encourage you to utilize ECS for hosting, ApsaraDB for RDS, and OSS for asset storage. If your game has global players, consider using their CDN to optimize asset delivery. For lightweight backend needs, you can explore SAE or Function Compute.

Alibaba Cloud Challenge Submission Template

Be sure to review our judging criteria, rules, guidelines, and FAQ page before submitting so you understand our participation guidelines and official contest rules such as eligibility requirements.

Please note: this challenge has regional availability limitations listed below.

Need Help?

Get to know Alibaba Cloud by utilizing their resources, we recommend starting with:

Elastic Compute Service (ECS) for hosting
ApsaraDB for RDS for databases
Object Storage Service (OSS) for asset storage
Content Delivery Network (CDN) for optimizing asset delivery
Serverless App Engine (SAE) or Function Compute for lightweight backend needs

Additional resources:

Developers Docs
OpenAPI Explorer
Platform for AI (perfect for integrating AI into your robot game!)

Regional Availability

We want to be transparent that Alibaba Cloud services have regional availability limitations and are not directly accessible in some regions, including India and Australia.

For participants in these regions:

You may consider using global cloud access solutions to participate (such as secure remote access tools).
You remain eligible for all prizes, and we are committed to fulfilling prizes worldwide.
International collaboration teams with members in supported regions are welcome.
If you're unable to access Alibaba Cloud services, we invite you to explore our other ongoing challenges, which are designed to be globally accessible.

Important Dates

April 2: Alibaba Cloud Challenge begins!
April 13: Submissions due at 11:59 PM PDT
April 24: Winners Announced

We can't wait to see what robot-themed games you build! Questions about the challenge? Ask them below.

Good luck and happy coding!