Alexa Blogs
We’re thrilled to announce the Alexa Skills Challenge: Games with BeMyApp for developers in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, and Austria. This is an opportunity for you to create entertaining, engaging, and educational game skills for Alexa and compete for cash prizes.
All you need to do is publish an Alexa skill within the Games, Trivia, and Accessories category in the Alexa Skills Store on amazon.de or amazon.co.uk. Your skill can be published in German or English. You can also publish it to both stores and increase your chances of winning one of the grand prizes or a bonus prize.
Have an Idea? Build Engaging Voice Games for Alexa
Alexa skills can simplify almost any imaginable task through a voice command and add a new way of interaction. Games provide a wide opportunity for developers. Transferring the experience to voice is just the next challenge to conquer. You could develop a voice-first adventure game, a quiz where players answer questions about their favorite topic, or a voice experience for an existing game. You own the experience and can build almost anything you want – whether you are new to Alexa or an experienced skill builder – we provide you with the resources and tools you need to get started.
Tips to Get Started
Design Your Voice Experience – Before you start coding, think about the voice user experience and how the customer will use your game skill. Learn more about voice user interface basics and check out the Alexa Voice Design Guide for best practices on designing delightful voice interactions.
Adopt Skill-Building Best Practices – Check out our voice design resources, including blog posts, developer stories, code samples, a webinar, and bi-weekly office hours to support you as you build.
Uplevel Your Voice Gaming Experience – You can integrate Alexa Gadgets, like Echo Buttons, into your skill to make it more interactive. You can also enhance your skill to allow multiple players or add session management to allow your skill to remember the game state.
What You Are Competing For
- Participant Prize: All eligible participants will take home an exclusive Alexa Skills Challenge hoodie.
- Finalist Prize: Ten finalists will take home €2,500 each.
- Grand Prizes: The winners for the overall best Alexa game skill in German and English will be chosen from the finalists and will receive €10,000 on top of their finalist prize.
5 More Bonus Ways to Win
There are 5 additional bonus prizes for you to build towards. Winners of these bonus prizes will receive €2,500 and an Echo Spot (up to three Echo Spots, if you are participating as a team). They need not be a finalist:
- Best Game Skill for Echo Show & Echo Spot: Awarded to the highest overall scoring updated skill based on the judges’ scores that was built for Echo Show and Echo Spot.
- Best Voice adaption of a Game: Awarded to the highest overall scoring new skill based on the Judges’ scores for a voice adaption of an existing game.
- Customer´s Choice Most engaging Game Skill: Awarded to the skill from the games category with the highest number of users during the challenge engagement period.
- Best Game Skill for Kids: Awarded to the highest overall scoring new skill based on the judges’ scores for a game Skill in the category “Kids > Games” within the Alexa Skills Store on amazon.de or amazon.co.uk.
- Best Localized Game Skill: Awarded to the highest overall scoring skill based on the judges’ scores that was localized to the Alexa Skills Store on amazon.de or amazon.co.uk.
All prizes are split between team members, or hoarded if the winning skill was built by just one person. To be eligible, skills must be submitted in German or English to the Alexa Skills Store on amazon.de and/or amazon.co.uk, and accompanied by a complete submission package. Only residents of the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany and Austria are eligible to participate in the Cchallenge. Developers based in the United Kingdom will receive the cash prizes to the actual exchange rate in British pounds.
Meet the Judges
Our panel of judges is made up of experts in games, voice technology, and skill development:
- Markus Schwerdtel, Co-chief editor of game magazine GameStar
- Liam Sorta, Technical Evangelist at Unity Technologies
- Tim Kahle, CEO of 169 Labs
- Fabrice Rousseau, General Manager Europe Alexa Skills Kit and Alexa Voice Service
Get Started
Submit your application and skill by October 17 to the BeMyApp platform and to the Alexa Skills Store on amazon.de or amazon.co.uk. Start now to take advantage of the full 7-week submission period. Share your skill with friends and family and get feedback. Update your skill as often as you like during the submission period. In early November, we’ll announce the 10 finalists. In round 2, the finalists’ skills will have time to gain more player usage. The winners will be announced in early December.
If you’re interested in participating, start right away by visiting the challenge page on BeMyApp.
Need more guidance as you get started? Register for our upcoming webinar Tips on Building Voice-First Games for Alexa, where we'll share tips and best practices for building great Alexa game skills.
We look forward to seeing the amazing skills you build!
