Today, we’re happy to invite developers like you to build a new reality with us and apply for the Niantic Beyond Reality Developer Contest. Explore and create with the Niantic Real World Platform, and compete for your share of a prize pool of more than one million USD.

Back in June, we invited the world to see our company’s commitment to Augmented Reality (AR), a key component of the Niantic Real World Platform. Our engineers showed off the years of rigorous research we’ve done on many aspects of AR, including real-time shared multiplayer AR demos such as Codename: Neon and Codename: Tonehenge. These innovative technological advancements were designed to complement Niantic’s pioneering persistent geospatial game experiences, creating a new layer that seamlessly blends the real world with something special and new. During that event, we also called for interest from third-party developers excited about building on the Niantic Real World Platform.

Niantic’s Real World Platform combines a world-scale persistent state engine, multiplayer AR, high-speed networking, geolocation data, and much more to create unique experiences that promote a sense of imagination and adventure. We’re seeking applicants that are excited about creating projects that follow core tenets of Niantic: exploration, exercise and real-world social interaction. The required team composition is at least five developers with experience in Unity and Java Server development.

Our focus is on games, but our definition of games is pretty expansive. So if you have an idea that bridges gaming and other areas like physical activity, social, travel or shopping, please feel free to submit. We are looking for proposals that leverage the Niantic Real World Platform's persistent, real world capability as well as advanced AR. We encourage you to think boldly!

A select group of ten teams will earn a stipend and access to the Niantic Real World Platform. Finalists will work for a three-month period, with the goal of showing off their incredible work at a Demo Day in San Francisco, hosted by Niantic. In addition to regular guidance and discussion from the Niantic Engineering team, finalists will be brought to San Francisco/Bay Area to meet with executives and lay the groundwork for the work to come.

We invite you to adventure along with us, and create something that the world has never seen before. If you’re as excited as we are, take the first step by applying through our contest site. If you have further questions, feel free to contact us at devcontest@nianticlabs.com.

We can’t wait to see what you’ll build.



—Phil Keslin, Co-founder & Chief Technology Officer



