Games publisher and social gaming community app Storms has announced its inaugural hyper-casual game competition, offering indie mobile game studios and developers from around the world the chance to win a total prize pool of SG$360,000 (roughly US$270,000) and publishing contracts. 

The ‘Storm the World 2021’ Competition is now open for submissions (www.storms.com/stormtheworld), with the top three winners to be revealed in late March this year. Submissions will be judged based on the games’ potential for success, focusing on its user acquisition prospects and user retention capability.”

The top three winning submissions will receive an exclusive publishing contract with Storms, as well as an attractive cash prize as such:

• First prize: SG$160,000 
• Second prize: SG$120,000
• Third prize: SG$80,000

In addition, Storms will also offer bonus prizes worth up to SG$30,000 per game for qualifying submissions which failed to make it to the top three.

Highlighted rules for “Storm the World 2021” Competition:

• Submitted games should be available on the Google Play Store and/or Apple App Store.
• Submitted games cannot be previously tested with Storms.
• Game developers can submit an unlimited amount of games.
• Expected CPI should be at or below US$0.25 in the United States, with a D1 Retention rate above 35 percent.

Storms CEO David Yin said:

“We created ‘Storm the World’ because many indie game studios and developers lack the necessary financial resources and expertise to scale their business locally and globally.

With this competition, Storms wants to discover the world’s best indie game creators, and support them around paid user acquisition and strategic game advice, so they can focus on fully exploring their visions and passion for gaming whilst securing marketability and future success”.

With this initiative, Storms’ publishing arm aims to supercharge the growth of high-potential indie mobile game developers yet to be discovered, by leveraging on its key gaming expertise and Singtel’s telco network accumulating to 700 million subscribers in the region. In addition to the cash prizes, winners will benefit from Storms’ product expertise and support to distribute their games to a global audience and scale its monetization profitably. 

Storms’ previous published games include Zombeast: Survival Zombie Shooter, an offline FPS mobile game which has achieved 3 million downloads and a 4.7 rating on GooglePlay Store; and Umbra: Amulet of Light, a 3D puzzle game developed by Indonesian indie developer Niji Games.

The competition is held in partnership with Adjust, a global app marketing platform working with many of the world’s leading mobile game developers, to help promote the competition and drive submissions.

Stores Head Of Marketing Shn Juay said:

“Storms can accomplish more with the right partner:

Working towards the common goal of accelerating indie game developers’ growth, we’re delighted to be leveraging a best-in-class app marketing platform like Adjust and their cutting edge tools to drive growth, optimize app users’ retention and maximise life time value”.

Developers can learn more and submit their entries at www.storms.com/stormtheworld, starting today from 8 January 2021 to 28 February 2021 (GMT+8). You can also follow #StormTheWorld on LinkedIn and Instagram to see which developers are chosen, their journeys and to learn more about Storms.