Developing a game isn't an easy task. In addition to coding, art, music, and a thousand other things, you have to worry about getting it out there once it's complete. But what if you didn't have to worry about that? That's where having a publisher comes in handy.

Storms, a startup backed by Singtel, AIS and SK Telecom, has announced Storm The World, its very-first mobile game competition. Targeted at indie mobile game studios and developers worldwide, the competition features a USD 270K total prize pool and attractive publishing deals to the winners.

Starting today and running until 28 February 2021 (51 days to go at the time of writing), this means your game should be close to completion - unless you want the challenge of creating a game in under two months! For those of you who were concerned about publishing options, this could be your golden ticket. Here's what Storms are offering to the winners:

Up to 3 teams will get to win from a prize pool of USD$270,000 and a publishing contract to help launch your game globally. Bonus prizes worth up to USD$20,000 will be awarded to games that perform well during the testing phase.

First prize: USD$ 120,000
Second prize: USD$ 90,000
Third prize: USD$ 60,000

From the Storms website

As for the requirements and judging criteria:

Your game should:
∙ Be available on either the Google Play Store and/or the Apple App Store
∙ Be integrated with a Mobile Measurement Partner. Learn More
∙ Be set up as an app under your Facebook for Developer account with shared access granted to Storms
∙ Have a minimum of 4 videos suitable to be used for ads (Requirements: 15 to 20s, 1080x1350)
∙ Have gone through cost per installation tests and integration with an analytics tool such as Firebase (Preferred not mandatory)

Note: Submitted games should not have been tested with Storms before.

Judging criteria
∙ We will conduct CPI & Retention testing in the US Market for submitted games.
∙ We will be looking out for games with the lowest Cost per Install (CPI) and the highest Day-1 (D1) retention
∙ Expected CPI be at or below USD$0.25
∙ Expected D1 Retention > 35%

From the Storms website

Check out the Terms and Conditions and Submission Guidelines.

Good luck to everybody submitting their games to the competition, we're looking forward to seeing what kind of submissions turn up!