Unity Christmas Calendar by Devdog Giving Out Over $15k In Prizes

With all the stuff about marketing and sales, it's sometimes easy to forget the sense of community and giving that is supposed to define the holiday season. What, in theory, should be the least capitalist holidays in the world, have been in many ways taken over by companies looking to make money. That's why it is always nice to see things like the Devdog Unity Gamedev Christmas Calendar that brings together a community to share things, even if there is a sprinkle of capitalist marketing involved.

Set to begin on December 1st, Devdog is calling this, "the Biggest Christmas Giveaway Calendar the Unity game development community has ever seen", with a total prize pool being well over $15, 000. They have managed to get over 50 sponsors from the event, starting with the big wigs at Unity itself, and among various partners throughout the industry. Here are a few of the biggest prizes:

•  1 Year Unity Pro License and Unity Unite 2017 Ticket ($2000 in total)
• Nordic Game Jam sponsored 5 tickets to their game jam in 2017 ($575 in total)
• Pocket Gamer Connects sponsored a VIP Ticket for their PG Connects Event ($1500)

Here are some of the most notable sponsored things from Asset creators, and you can see some of their work in the links beside them.

• &u Assets sponsored over 20+ vouchers.
• Jean Moreno (JMO) sponsored over 20+ vouchers.
• Carlos Wilkes sponsored 10 vouchers.

Simply put, you sign up by email and each day everyone is sent an email detailing who won the day's draws, what was won, and what will be coming the next day. There is a big draw set for December 25th, with more prizes than the other days to be given out. The exact amount of prizes for the event is determined by how much the Unity Christmass Giveaway Calendar is shared. Having been shared over 1000 times, the first 4 tiers of prize totals have been passed, meaning that there will be a minimum of 250 total prizes, with 25 of them given on Christmas day. If it gets shared 2500 times total, that will increase to 350 and 35. No matter when the 2500 goal is reached (as long as it is  throughout the event), the total prize pool will rise to350 even if it means a few days of giant prize hand-outs at the end of the event.

Reaching out to Devdog, we asked why they organized the calendar, and this is what they had to say:

Game developers have delivered hours on end of entertainment and joy to many a gamer on Christmas Day, but it seemed to us the game developers themselves were always overlooked. But no more of that! So we sat down, crunched some numbers and... well, honestly we just spammed a whole bunch of awesome fellow games tool and software developers, hoping they'd jump on board. And they did! So for every Christmas from now on, all Unity game developers will have a chance at winning an early Christmas present - and next year, the event will be even bigger ;)

If you want to learn more about the Christmas Calendar, check out the Devdog blog post and if you want to sign up for it, here's the Christmas Calendar.