The Great Canadian Appathon (GCA) was a 48-hour game design and development competition open to Canadian college and university students. Students attempted to design, develop and program a working mobile game within the restrictions of an annually changing game 'theme'. Individuals, or teams of up to four students, worked for 48-hours in designated 'HUBS' set up at participating universities and colleges, to submit their games for a variety of prizes. A number of studios have been founded on the prize money won at the Great Canadian Appathon. This includes Edmonton based 1st place Team Masheen, and Bitshift Games.http://metronews.ca/news/edmonton/27146/next-coding-contest-on/
Progress
GCA (March 2011) GCA2 (October 2011) GCA3 (September 2012) Provinces 4 8 10 Colleges and Universities 7 21 39 Teams 94 125 149 Students 296 410 521 Games 54 80 124
Judging criteria
All the submitted games by GCA participants were evaluated by game development senior staff on criteria such as the degree of innovation, the fun and entertainment factor, the level of art and design polish as well as stability to determine the winners.
History
11 March – 13 March 2011
Place Team HUB Game Winner 1 Team Masheen Northern Alberta Institute of Technology & University of Alberta Super Punch Winner 2 Team Sheldon University of British Columbia Valley Raid Winner 3 Resistor5 McGill University & Concordia University Plasmium
30 September – 2 October 2011
Place Team HUB Game Winner 1 Drop Table Teams Concordia University Trace Racer Winner 2 Resistor5 McGill University Ludicrous Archery Winner 3 Team ABXYZ Carleton University Portal Bow
28 September – 30 September 2012
Place Team HUB Game Winner 1 Team Heisenberg Carleton University Daylight Saving Winner 2 Team Unistd University of Toronto Devourer of Worlds Winner 3 Team Grade-F Polytechnique Montreal Zombyte
References