The second annual Proto Awards will be held on September 22nd alongside Oculus’ Connect developer conference. The award ceremony highlights the best in virtual reality content. Submissions for consideration close on July 15th.
Under the umbrella of the non-profit Virtual Reality Foundation, the Proto Awards were founded last year largely by members of VRLA, a Los Angeles-based virtual reality community organization that hosts regular VR events like their quarterly Expo series.
Last year’s award ceremony, hosted by actor Thomas Middleditch from HBO’s Silicon Valley, judged winners across 11 categories and named them on stage at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, the site of the first Academy Awards in 1929. The night turned out to be quite a hit, making it clear that the Proto Awards would continue onward.
This year’s Proto Awards will be held on September 22nd at Avalon Hollywood, the evening before Oculus Connect and just a few blocks down the street.
Submissions for VR content entries opened on the 1st of July and will close on July 15th. Winners will be chosen across 13 categories:
- Best GUI
- Best Art Direction
- Best Live Action Experience
- Best Interaction Design
- Best Social Experience
- Best Score
- Best Sound Design
- Best Educational Experience
- Best Mobile Experience
- Best Student Experience
- Best Independent Experience
- Most Transportive
- Most Innovative
A $50 submission fee accompanies all entries (but is waived in the case of student entries). The submission conditions should be looked over carefully:
Any virtual reality experience made available for public download between September 20, 2014 and July 15, 2015 – for free or for a fee – may be submitted for the 2015 Proto Awards. Experiences exhibited privately or in installations or other limited availability may not be submitted. Submissions must remain available for public download through December 31, 2015. Teams submitting in the Student category must be led by a student enrolled in elementary, high school, 2- or 4-year college, masters or PhD program as of July 15, 2015. Submissions for the Best Independent Experience category must not have received any funding beyond what is commonly referred to as “angel funding.” Teams at “seed” or later stage are not eligible for Best Independent Experience.
Nvidia was the headlining sponsor for last year’s event and provided the (then) brand new GTX 980 GPU to winners. With this year’s event presented by AMD, it’s possible that winners will get their hands on the company’s just released Fury X GPU, though there is no specific mention of prizes.
