Microsoft Research Cambridge in collaboration with Microsoft XNA, Lionhead Studios and Rare Ltd are organizing an international contest "Silicon Minds" to invent and build a new Xbox 360 game using XNA Games Studio 2.0 (available for free download), on the theme of artificial intelligence.
The aim of the contest is to encourage understanding of how gaming research, artificial intelligence and machine learning contribute to more innovative gameplay and more realistic and fun gaming experiences. The contest is a warm-up contest for the "Dream-Build-Play 2008" competition.
Up to five finalist teams will receive: An interview for a three month internship at the Microsoft Research Cambridge lab and/or at one of the Microsoft game studios Rare Ltd or Lionhead Studios (from Summer 2008)
A $3000 stipend per finalist team for their projects / travel to Games Developer Conference (GDC) 2008
An invitation to show the project entry at GDC 2008 conference in San Francisco
A one-year subscription to the XNA Creators Club for each team member
Registration for the Silicon Minds contest opens on December 14, 2007. The submission entry period for the Silicon Minds contest is from December 20, 2007 to January 27, 2008. Winners will be announced at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2008 in San Francisco in February 2008. For more details about the contest and how to enter please go to: www.dreambuildplay.com.
If you have any additional questions feel free to post them on our development forums.
A great opportunity for creative minds and designers to sink their teeth into the openly available XNA Games Studio and get a chance to get something out of it. +rep for the find
