NATIONWIDEMedia Coverage
News Coverage of GCA³:
"Team Heisenberg emerged victorious with their creation Daylight Saving from the 48-hour Great Canadian Appathon that XMG Studio hosted a couple of months ago. We sat down with Niravkumar Patel from the battle-hardened Team Heisenberg to chat about winning the Appathon and how he and Team Heisenberg plan to set up their own studio."
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Shaun from EP Daily attends the Great Canadian Appathon³ Grand Finale and talks to XMG Studio's Ray Sharma about the appathon, and the three finalists' games!
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Shaun from EP Daily visits the Ryerson DMZ hub and talks to XMG Studio's Lydia Schaele about the appathon.
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"For 48 sleepless, caffeine fuelled hours, students from all across Canada, including those from UW and Laurier, participated in the third annual Great Canadian Appathon (GCA), the so-called “hackathon” for post-secondary students."
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Bill Hutchison delivers the popular segment Webmania, which highlights the latest advancements in computers, the Internet and digital technology.
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"Teams of university and college students across Canada had 48 hours to develop a mobile game from scratch. This year's theme was retro."
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“When you put developers under pressure and time restraints, they often come together as a team and we see a brilliant combination of creativity and intelligence in their work,” said Salimi. “We expect to see some strong games submitted this year.”
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“We’re so excited that our students are taking advantage of this wonderful opportunity. It’s going to be very intense! The teamwork experience these bright and talented young minds will gain will certainly be invaluable to them in the future.”
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"If the slumped shoulders and glazed-over eyes were any indication of fatigue, the 15-can Red Bull tower was a dead giveaway that these programmers were exhausted. They were nearly 24 hours into the third Great Canadian Appathon, a 48-hour programming competition."
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"Mr. Sharma, the head of Toronto-based mobile game developer XMG studio, is the opening speaker at this year's Great Canadian Appathon, the largest and most lucrative app-building competition for Canadian students. Over the next 48 hours, more than 500 students across the country will pull a marathon coding session in the hopes of creating the most compelling smartphone or tablet game and taking home the competition's $25,000 first place prize."
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"More than 500 Canadian students braved sleepless nights, wrote miles of computer code and consumed medically inadvisable quantities of energy drinks this weekend, all in the hopes of winning one of the country’s most lucrative programming competitions."
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"A dedicated group of Nipissing students competed last weekend in the Great Canadian Appathon, a 48-hour national competition to create the best game application for the mobile operating system of their choice."
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“The appathon, in my opinion, was the best way to really put all the information we studied and practised during class hours into something physical and concrete,” [Valérie Thériault] said. “Something that could be measured and judged in the real world and see what we could accomplish as a team.”
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“Much of the code that we wrote was reused during later projects, including an Android game that I’m finishing now, and hope to release by the end of this year,” says Kramarovsky, a third-year student. “The competition also helped me get an internship because I had something to showcase.”
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This midday update is produced by the School of Journalism's Masthead class..
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"The Great Canadian Appathon is an unparalleled competition of computer skill, creativity and endurance. Specifically, it is a 48-hour sprint to create the next hit mobile game, from inception to a finished product. That’s two straight days to create the next Tetris or Angry Birds."
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"It’s ‘game over’ for participants of the Great Canadian Appathon’ and the race to make the best mobile gaming APP ended."
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“It was great to see something come together in 48 hours,” explained Vaughan Hilts, a first-year computer science student and one of the eight students that participated from Laurier. “Toward the end it was really tricky, we were running into a couple of issues, but I’m happy how it turned out.”.
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"Student developers, we want you! The University of Waterloo is a hub for this year’s Great Canadian Appathon - on September 28 at 5 pm, come out to the Davis Centre and head on over to the fishbowl to make some awesome mobile games."
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"The Great Canadian Appathon is back to hack and coming to Laurier! You’ll need all the “wicked smahts” you have to take home your share of this year’s $35,000 in prizes up for grabs!"
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Shaun from EP Daily visits XMG Studio and talks to Daniel Cosu and Steve Engels about the appathon.
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“This intense, compressed experience has resulted in the creation of some remarkable games. The first cohort of winners has ended up churning out games like SuperPunch, Valley Raid, and Plasmium. Criteria for the evaluation of these games include degree of innovation; fun and entertainment factor; level of art and design polish; and stability.”
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“The winning games will be evaluated on critera such as degree of innovation, fun and entertainment factor, level of art and design polish, and stability. Good news is it doesn’t look like it’s too late to sign-up. If you don’t have a team you can check out the GCA³ Facebook page and find other students in your area.”
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“Last year University of Toronto students participated in the Appathon, a huge and important event for student programmers and developers in the city. This year the university is aiming to make a bigger splash, by getting more involved and sending more participants to support the event!"
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“Like the Great Canadian Appathon 2 – the largest‘hackathon’ in Canada to date– GCA 3 guarantees its participants 48 hours of intense fun, the opportunity to learn all kinds of new code, and a chance to build a mobile game on their mobile operating system of choice."
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“You can take courses and develop your programming knowledge, but in a competition you have to think on your feet and troubleshoot quickly – those are very valuable skills...”
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"We expect nothing less than the students to emerge from GCA 3 with learning more about commercial software development than any other experience in their student careers," says Bill Marshall, Founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Toronto International Film Festival, and a member of the GCA judging panel.
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“Video games have not only captured the popular imagination, they are true works of innovation and I am proud to say Canada is a world leader in this booming industry,“ says Tony Clement, President of the Treasury Board, and a member of this year’s GCA judging panel.”
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Shaun from EP Daily talks to XMG Studio about the Great Canadian Appathon
Back to topNews Coverage of GCA²:
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“We’re really looking forward to seeing the creativity and energy this weekend. The first Great Canadian Appathon delivered games way ahead of our expectations and we expect to publish the three finalists at the same time as we announce the winners for GCA-2.”
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“Three hundred twenty five students from across Canada have signed up for the Great Canadian Appathon, a competition sponsored by the Toronto video game studio XMG.”
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“It may have been the most stressful 48 hours of their lives, which is why the winners of the first Great Canadian Appathon will be on hand as competitors embark on projects for the next one.”
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“XMG Studios will be holding their second ‘Great Canadian Appathon’ where teams will compete to build a video game in 48 hours. The top prize? $25,000... This weekend I will endure the 48 hour challenge and attempt to achieve glory”
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“[GCA] allows people to really get in the space and really understand and partner with some companies that have experience and can benefit from it."
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"The Great Canadian Appathon is a celebration of our country's competitive spirit. You have to be extremely driven and dedicated to spend an entire weekend in virtual lock down building an app from scratch"
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“The competition will follow the same format where teams of college and university students will have exactly 48 hours total to design and develop a mobile game. The Appathon is sponsored by Toronto based, award-winning game developers XMGStudio”
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“Presented by mobile game developer XMG Studio and The National Post, the first place team will also win the opportunity to interview for a job at XMG, as well as receive guidance on publishing the winning app in the App Store.”
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“GCA2 guarantees participants 48 hours of intense fun, meeting new people, learning stuff, and building a game on top of the worlds leading mobile API’s.”
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“The Software Engineering and Computer Science Society of Concordia University brings you the Great Canadian Appathon Competition organized by XMG Studios.”
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“Some of the talented designers and developers from XMG will be on-site at the major universities’ “HUBS” to motivate and mentor the teams. All other coders can rely on a 48-hour support line for questions and advice on how to work with the latest interfaces.”
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“The Software Engineering and Computer Science Society of Concordia University brings you the Great Canadian Appathon Competition organized by XMG Studios AGAIN! We had such a great turn out last time”
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“You don't need to be a programmer to participate! If you have other talents like art or music, feel free to use the comments to team up with a coder and create a truly awesome game!”
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“The Great Canadian Appathon is back for a second year. In this national competition student teams will create a mobile game within 48 hours – Sept. 30 – Oct. 2.”
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“Great Canadian Appathon will give students the opportunity to win over $50,000 in cash and prizes, get their game published and even win a chance at a job in the games industry at XMG Studio.”
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“Student teams will have 48 hours to create a mobile game they think could become the next top selling smartphone app. CBET already has over 30 teams registered, more than three times the number that particpated last year.”
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“The Appathon is something that you should definitely check out if you’re interesting in making games."
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“The Canada wide competition, which starts Friday and runs until Sunday, pits Canadian college and university students against each other in a nonstop two -day challenge fueled by creativity, coding prowess, pizza and energy drinks.”
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“When the Great Canadian Appathon² (GCA²) kicks off at colleges and universities across Canada, nine student development teams will descend on Carleton to bring their interactive ideas to life.”
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“It’s time for the Great Canadian Appathon! The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology will be the Western Canada hub for the competition which starts on Friday. Teams of post-secondary students will have 48 hours to develop their app. The winner will get a cheque for $25, 000.”
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“Over the weekend beginning Friday September 30, students at over 20 colleges and universities across Canada will be racing against the clock to create the next hit mobile game in under 48 hours.”
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“A group of Edmonton post-secondary students won the grand prize for their game, Super Punch, in the first Great Canadian Appathon held earlier this year. The group included representation from NAIT. The winners went on to form their own company, Bitshift Games. Representatives of Bitshift Games will be on hand throughout the weekend helping with the Edmonton event, which was put together with support from novaNAIT, NAIT’s centre for applied research and technology transfer. NAIT is serving as the regional hub.”
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“This weekend in the land of the Mountie, hundreds of young coders will be attempting to create a mobile game in just 48 hours. Why? Because they're competing in the second annual Great Canadian Appathon organized by The National Post (That's a newspaper) and XMG Studio Inc. (They publish mobile games).”
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“Presented by XMG Studio and the National Post, the Great Canadian Appathon Squared will give students the opportunity to win over $50,000 in cash and prizes, get their game published and even win a chance at a job in the games industry at XMG Studio.”
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“We really like finding great talent right out of school that are really into video game design, and have that knowledge of the market," said Andrew Kamondy, vice president of business development for XMG.”
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News Coverage of GCA¹:
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"Events such as the Great Canadian Appathon are key to Microsoft's strategy of encouraging the next generation of application creators to look to the company's platform as something they can build a business around."
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"The Appathon isn't just about building a great game, but also doing so within a limited timeframe."
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"Keep it simple and fun. That's the key advice of mobile game experts to up and coming coders who are taking part in a 48-hour scramble to develop the next great mobile game and bring home a share of $45,000 in cash prizes."
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"It's an all-nighter of a different kind! Student developers across Canada will compete in a mad 48 hour scramble to create the next great mobile game - and share in like $45,000 worth of loot!"
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"This is an awesome opportunity to learn more about app coding from the professionals, as well as a chance to win some major cash and other prizes, not to mention getting your app published."
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"According to the Appathon's rules, you don't even have to be on campus - you can work online if you want. I don't know if it's a gender thing or just because we're getting older, but I personally really appreciate this flexibility."
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"It should be perfectly clear that this is THE game-making competition to enter."
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"Some of Toronto's and Canada's most innovative and tech-savvy students will be furiously typing in computer code this weekend. The organizer is a Toronto company that makes mobile games, XMG Studio. We spoke with Andrew Kamondy, Vice President of business development."
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"This weekend marks the 'Great Canadian Appathon', a contest sponsored by TELUS, XMG Studio and The National Post, looking for young Canadian programmers to produce a WP7 game in a mere 48 hours."
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"Are you a Canadian post-secondary student? Do you think you (or better still, you and a team of your fellow students) whip up a mobile game in 48 hours?"
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"Hundreds of students from across the country competed in the Great Canadian Appathon last weekend, vying for a top prize of $25,000 for the team that created the best smartphone app."
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"You have probably heard of a walkathon or a phoneathon, but an appathon? I never heard the term either until two weekends ago when Concordia University, along with six other venues across the country, hosted the first-ever Great Canadian Appathon."
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