Ouya game jam offers $45k in prizes

Supporters of the Ouya console have contributed $45,000 in prizes to be awarded in the upcoming CREATE game jam.

The ten-day competition will challenge developers who backed the Ouya Kickstarter campaign to build an original game, which will then be submitted to Kill Screen for review.

The panel of judges includes Phil Fish, Adam Saltsman, Zach Gage, Ed Fries, Felicia Day, and others.

An interesting feature of the competition is that games will be judged in part by the social media support they drum up.

This is obviously of huge benefit to Ouya, which will get a great deal of free advertising, and one more potential hit for every submitted prototype that turns into a full game.

The grand prize winner will recieve $20,000, and an additional $5,000 if the game is completed and launched on Ouya.

$5,000 will be awarded to the winners in the following categories: most surprising, best controls, most immersive, "best couch with friends", and most visually stunning.

Category winners will recieve an additional $1,000 if their game is released for Ouya

There will be five finalists in each category and ten for the grand prize, all of whom will recieve an Ouya dev console and an invitation to an unveiling event with the Ouya team.

For complete rules, see the event’s page on Kill Screen.