Announcing the Winners of the Alexa Skills Challenge: In-Skill Purchasing

Ben Grossman Jan 13, 2020
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In September of last year, we announced the Alexa Skills Challenge: In-Skill Purchasing. The challenge invited developers around the world to invent the future of premium voice content by creating Alexa skills that use in-skill purchasing (ISP) and selling digital content within their skill experiences.  First and foremost, we want to thank everyone who participated in the challenge. It’s been incredible to see you learn in-skill purchasing, help others in the Alexa developer community, come up with creative ideas, and build great skills.

We’ve reviewed hundreds of submissions, and today we are excited to share the winners of the challenge with you. The review process wasn’t easy; we were amazed by the creative ways you used ISP– from interactive stories, to voice-enabled puzzle, adventure, & simulator games, and utilities that help us track our food, health, and good behavior – our developers created a variety of premium content that enrich Alexa skills.

And the Winners Are...

Grand Prize Winner ($15,000) - Fitnesscoach, submitted by Lasse Siebert from Germany! Congrats to Lasse for being our German Finalist and Grand Prize Winner. Fitnesscoach keeps you fit with 50 different exercises and daily tasks. Level up your exercise by mastering tasks, doing workouts, and achieving medals for specific accomplishments.  Lasse submitted a superb video and skill that show how in-skill purchasing can be used to not only seamlessly enhance a skill’s experience, but also inspire users. “From the start I didn't want the user to feel compelled to buy premium. The skill is useable without it, however buying the entitlement makes the whole fitnesscoach experience complete,” says Lasse. Congrays! Try Fitnesscoach.

Finalist Prize - United States Finalist ($10,000) - Song Quiz: Guess the titles of your favorite songs from the past 60 years! Now you can subscribe to Song Quiz Gold and Platinum to unlock thousands of new songs and get access to new playlists, with more music added every month. Try Song Quiz.

Finalist Prize - United Kingdom Finalist ($10,000) - Puzzler: Play a new 5-by-5 crossword every day – by voice! Subscribe to Puzzler Premium to get access to a new set of more than 50 extra 9-by-9 crosswords every month, plus unlimited hints for every crossword and the ability to reveal answers for every clue. Try Puzzler.

Finalist Prize - Japan Finalist ($10,000) - Usagi Monogatari (Rabbit Story): A beautiful, visual story game where you help rabbits on the moon build a rocket ship to reach new planets. Use ISP to acquire materials and build your ship faster. Try Usagi Monogatari.

Finalist Prize - Germany Finalist ($10,000) - Fitnesscoach (Fitness Coach): Our Grand Prize winner! Fitnesscoach’s premium subscription gives you unlimited workouts per day, the ability to add up to 6 user profiles, and access to more exercises. Try Fitnesscoach.

Finalist Prize - Wildcard Finalist ($5,000) - My Pet Cat: Take care of your very own pet Cat! Take your new pet on walks, teach it new skills, and go on adventures. Unlock premium content to level up your cat, and purchase items to aid you on your adventures. Try My Pet Cat.

Finalist Prize - Wildcard Finalist ($5,000) - Don’t Waste Food: Avoid waste by tracking your foods' expiration dates. Alexa will now help by notifying you before your food goes to waste! Try the premium subscription to track unlimited items in your fridge. Try Don’t Waste Food.

Finalist Prize - Wildcard Finalist ($5,000) - Mein Strand – Der Strandmanager (My Beach): 'Mein Strand' is a real-time strategy game and beach simulator. Turn a small beach into a trendy paradise by investing in new attractions to increase your beach’s popularity.  Unlock additional levels with a one-time purchase and keep your beach clean and attractive to guests with enhanced management tools. Try Mein Strand.

Finalist Prize - Wildcard Finalist ($5,000) - Puzzle of the Day: Puzzle of the Day is a crossword style game with 5 daily word puzzles. Link your account to share your stats and compete on the live leaderboards. Upgrade to a premium subscription for access to all puzzles from the last seven days, plus get extra letter reveals so you can complete all the puzzles! Try Puzzle of the Day.

Finalist Prize - Wildcard Finalist ($5,000) - My Rewards: Reward your kids for good behavior and motivate them to make the right choices to earn more rewards. Unlock unlimited reward recipients and rewards with a premium purchase. Try My Rewards.

Finalist Prize - Wildcard Finalist ($5,000) - Pirate Island: Play as a wanna-be Pirate and complete challenges to earn the respect an infamous pirate Captain. Purchase coins to use in-game to access bonus and early-access content. Try Pirate Island.

Bonus Prize Winners

Bonus Prize - Best Premium Game Category Experience ($3,000) - Song Quiz: Our US finalist prize winner. A delightfully fun game with something for everyone. You’ll keep coming back for more. Try Song Quiz.

Bonus Prize - Best Agency or Studio-Developed Premium Experience ($3,000) - Voice of the Day by Vocala: Every day try to guess the name behind the voice clip of a well-known person or celebrity, such as an actor, musician, politician and more! With Voice of the Day Premium, you can unlock two extra voices to guess every day, gain access to hints and the ability to skip voices, as well as the chance to compete on our leader boards.  Try Voice of the Day.

Bonus Prize - Best One-Time Purchase Product Experience ($3,000) - My Pumpkin: Design a pumpkin carving using your voice and see your design updates in real-time on screen enabled devices. Use in-skill purchasing to print your voice-created design into a stencil and create a custom pumpkin carving by voice! Try My Pumpkin.

Bonus Prize - Best Subscription Product Experience ($3,000) - Puzzler: Our United Kingdom finalist prize winner. With access to over 50 large extra puzzles each month, this premium subscription will keep you coming back each day to test your skills. Try Puzzler.

Bonus Prize - Best Consumables Product Experience ($3,000) - Signs of Crime by Adonous Tech: Signs of Crime is a neo-noir crime solving simulation with Alexa as your AI sidekick to help you interview witnesses and solve cases. Purchase additional interview attempts to extend and enhance the gameplay as you solve crimes. Try Signs of Crime.

Bonus Prize - Best Multimodal Experience with ISP ($3,000) - My Pet Cat: A wildcard finalist winner, My Pet Cat is a visual delight as you take care of your virtual pet and go on wildly fun adventures through the neighborhood. Try My Pet Cat.

Bonus Prize - Best Spanish Skill in the US with ISP ($3,000) - Don’t Waste Food: A wildcard finalist winner, Don’t Waste Food is a great utility to cut back on waste that is now available in both English and Spanish. Try Don’t Waste Food.

What's Next

In the coming weeks, we will coordinate with our Finalist prize winners for scheduling availability to attend an ISP Finalist Summit at Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle. This will be an opportunity to meet other challenge winners, learn and share best practices for building premium voice content, and provide your own feedback.

Try the Winning Skills and Get Inspired

Thank you to everyone who participated and worked hard to submit an entry to this challenge. Go to the Alexa Skills Challenge: In-Skill Purchasing gallery to congratulate the winners and get inspired by how they used ISP to create engaging and additive voice-first premium experiences. We appreciate your passion and hard work.

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