In 1998, iDevGames was launched to help support game developers on the Macintosh. Since entertainment is an important factor in computer ownership as well as purchases, the need to present the Mac as an attractive platform for gaming has been our driving force. To us, this starts at the grassroots level — the independent game developer community. These are the amateurs, professionals, students or hobbyists that are working alone today; yet bringing us the next big hit tomorrow through a commercial publisher. Independent game developers however face many hurdles such as lack of professional tools, advanced development knowledge, and industry contacts. With this in mind, iDevGames launch a very unique contest in 2001 dubbed “uDevGame.” In its first year, over 20 developers competed for a donated prize pool worth over $4,200 (USD). Building on this groundbreaking event for Macintosh developers, we set our goals even higher in 2002. As a recent editorial on iDevGames (http://www.idevgames.com/content/article.php?id=108) highlighted, 2002 surpassed all expectations. Here are some facts; over 40 game entries, 29 generous sponsors and a prize pool worth over $15,000 (USD). The contest last year created great media attention not only for the developers who entered, but for the sponsors as well. uDevGame 2002 was covered in a wide-range of media, including the high-traffic site Slashdot, as well as being mentioned in “Mac People”, Japan’s second-highest circulating Mac magazine (Japan is Apple’s second largest market!) The two best games were also displayed in Apple’s Mac OS X Game Arcade at MacWorld. Today, I am contacting you to ask for your support for uDevGame 2003. With the new Power Mac G5, Panther and Apple’s recent success, we feel uDevGame 2003 will also make a big impact in Mac gaming this year — and with an attractive gaming platform, we can all benefit by an ever increasing market-share for Apple’s platform! To become an official sponsor, please visit the following page and complete the form: http://www.idevgames.com/internal/sponsorship.php As editor-in-chief of iDevGames, I want our sponsors to succeed as much as the entrants in the contest. To that end, let me cover some of the benefits that sponsorship will offer. • Sponsors are entitled to a free web banner on the iDevGames site for a six month period • Sponsors are listed along with their company PR in the contest “Sponsors” page • Prizes donated feature links and product PR in the contest “Prizes” page • Sponsors are listed in all uDevGame press releases to the media In addition to the list above, there are some additional benefits for sponsors. Since winning developers will utilize prizes to create future game titles, the opportunity for your product to be cited as a “critical application” in the game’s development review (called a game “postmortem”) is a great way to garner free PR. Winning developers are often the best of the best, and having your prize in their hands means a new product evangelist on your side. Finally, winning developers are extremely open to reviewing the prizes that they have won. With over 500 developers, musicians and artists in our forum and yearly increasing site traffic, these are great opportunities to reach out to a large audience. We are currently preparing the contest pages and will issue a press release to kick things off once we have secured our sponsors. We hope that you will respond by July 11 at the latest. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me. On behalf of the community at iDevGames, I hope to see your company take part in uDevGame 2003. Sincerely, Carlos Camacho Editor-in-Chief editor@... www.idevgames.com uDevGame 2002 Sponsors: Apple Developer Connection (ADC), Bare Bones Software, Big Nerd Ranch, Inc., CH Products, Codenautics, EOVIA Corporation, ExpressionTools, Inc., Freeverse Software, Layout Center, McWare USA Corp., Metrowerks Corp., midnite.liteman, The Omni Group, Pixologic, Inc., Quadmation, Incorporated., REALbasic Developer Magazine, REAL Software, Stone Design, TNT Software, STAZ Software, Strata Software