On your mark, get set, GO! This morning, our second annual 3D Jam kicks off with developers around the world competing for over $75,000 in cash and prizes – building brand new experiences for virtual reality, desktop, mobile, and beyond. Submissions are now open at itch.io/jam/leapmotion3djam.

With over 150 complete experiences submitted to last year’s 3D Jam, we saw everything from sci-fi space stations to the inner workings of the human body. Virtual reality experiences dominated the field, representing 14 of the top 20 and taking all three finalist spots. This year, developers have registered from over 80 countries around the world – twice the number from last year! We’ve also switched up the 2015 competition with two tracks: AR/VR and Open. The AR/VR track covers experiences built on tethered HMDs like the Oculus Rift, while the Open track covers desktop, hardware hacks, and the Internet of Things.

Over the next six weeks, developers will be racing the clock to get their projects on itch.io/jam/leapmotion3djam by November 9th at 11:59:59 pm PST (full contest rules here). Registrations will remain open until the submission deadline. If you haven’t already, we encourage competitors to register and get their hardware as early as possible. Everyone who registers gets a special discount code for our web store, and teams with complete submissions get refunds for the cost of their hardware.

Prizes

AR/VR Track

1st Prize: $10,000, Unity Suite, 2 OSVR HDKs, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti

$10,000, Unity Suite, 2 OSVR HDKs, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 2nd Prize: $7,500, Unity Pro, OSVR HDK, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti

$7,500, Unity Pro, OSVR HDK, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 3rd Prize: $5,000, Unity Pro, OSVR HDK, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti

$5,000, Unity Pro, OSVR HDK, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 4th Prize: $2,500, Unity Pro, OSVR HDK

$2,500, Unity Pro, OSVR HDK 5th Prize: $1,000, Unity Pro, OSVR HDK

$1,000, Unity Pro, OSVR HDK Community Favorites (2): $500, Unity Pro

Open Track

1st Prize: $10,000, Unity Suite, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti

$10,000, Unity Suite, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 2nd Prize: $7,500, Unity Pro, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti

$7,500, Unity Pro, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 3rd Prize: $5,000, Unity Pro, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti

$5,000, Unity Pro, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti Community Favorite (1): $500, Unity Pro

Development Resources

We’ve made some huge advances since the 2014 Jam, with new resources and integrations that will take your projects to the next level. (You can read our development guide for a full breakdown of our top resources and best practices.) Our Core Assets for Unity now feature:

Full Oculus 0.7 support

Infrared video passthrough

Image Hands that bring your real-life hands into VR

UI Widgets for menus and interfaces

Quick Switch to swipe between virtual and augmented reality

On the Unreal side, we’re collaborating with the enormously talented getnamo to bring new assets to his community plugin. Right now, the plugin includes full support for Unreal 4.9.1 and VR, with Image Hands on the way. Stay tuned to our community forums for updates.

Hardware hackers also have access to more resources as the Internet of Things continues to grow. Integrations like Cylon.js and Vuo are making it easy for developers, designers, and artists to bridge the divide between people and technology in new and exciting ways. If you’re looking to submit a hardware project on the Open Track, be sure to check out our approved hardware list.

We can’t wait to see how you push the frontiers of technology with Leap Motion interaction. Touch base with your fellow jammers with the hashtag #3Djam, follow us @LeapMotion on Twitter and Facebook, or join the conversation on Reddit. Check out our community forum thread to find team members and get the latest updates. Good luck!