IMVU Presents Hack With Me The First Avatar-Based Social Experience Hackathon

Sponsored by Unity Technologies, The Lean Startup, Carnegie Mellon University, Microsoft, Supersonic, and Amazon

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Sep 16, 2015, 09:30 ET

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Sept. 16, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- IMVU, the leading avatar-based social network, has recently announced the first ever avatar-based social experience hackathon, which will take place from September 23 through October 16. Hack With Me will empower small teams of the world's top developers, designers, and entrepreneurs to unlock IMVU's infinitely customizable avatars and develop web, mobile, and virtual reality apps in Unity. The participants will be the first to develop experiences that redefine the power of social connectivity and navigate the road to social virtual reality.

Hack With Me: Create avatar-based social experiences with Unity and IMVU. Win big prizes!

The Hack With Me competition features a four-week virtual hackathon, hosted by IMVU and sponsored by Unity Technologies, The Lean Startup, Carnegie Mellon University – Entertainment Technology Center, Microsoft, Supersonic, and Amazon. Using the new IMVU API for the Unity game engine, developers will be able to bring customizable avatars to engage, play, and socialize with their friends, enjoying more expressive communication and meaningful relationships online.

Hack With Me will enable developers to compete in the increasingly crowded App market by allowing them to:

Make their game better and faster with IMVU and Unity. 4.5 million developers use Unity to create their games. Now, IMVU is providing the best and highest quality avatars and social graph for those experiences.
Get noticed. As App submissions continue to grow, so does the challenge of getting your App downloaded. IMVU will be launching its App page later this year with a selective array of Apps that have been submitted and accepted for distribution. The winning apps will be promoted to IMVU's 3 Million monthly active users to guarantee an audience and increase downloads.
Make money. IMVU's highly engaged users customize their Avatar by shopping from the IMVU Shop at an astounding rate of over 200K products sold daily and are always looking for more ways to interact with their friends. The new IMVU App page will give developers a means to access this captive audience by offering engaging new experiences and monetization opportunities with in-App purchases.

"We encourage developers from around the world to participate in our Hack With Me competition to develop the next generation of social media, powered by IMVU avatars," says Stewart Bonn, SVP of Product at IMVU. "Social virtual reality will be the most powerful way to connect with others in a more expressive and meaningful way and we're looking forward to the innovative experiences that are created through Hack With Me."

The winning teams will be selected by the judging panel on October 22, which includes the following judges: David Catuhe, Microsoft; Adam Ben David, Supersonic; Brett Durrett, IMVU; Peter Heinrich, Amazon; Neon Hitch, Pop Star; Caitlyn Meeks, Unity; Amy Jo Kim, Shufflebrain; Carl Rosendahl, Pacific Data Images/Carnegie Mellon; and Spencer Tall, Allegis Capital. The top winners will receive cash prizes in addition to the following:

Unity licenses
Amazon Fire TV
Google Cardboard
Lean Startup Conference Gold Pass

Hack With Me will kick off at Unite Boston on September 23 and will continue at the San Francisco Unity 5 Roadshow on September 26. For more information, please visit HackWMe.com.

About IMVU
IMVU is the #1 avatar-based social network that combines the people connection and sharing attributes endemic of social media with 3D avatars and environments. Available for desktop and mobile devices, IMVU's ever-expanding, virtual marketplace boasts more than 20 million, user-generated virtual goods ranging from stilettos to stun guns and diapers to disco balls. Serving more than 130 million registered users, IMVU, Inc. was voted best place to work in Silicon Valley. Led by CEO, Brett Durrett, and located in Mountain View, CA, IMVU, Inc. is now hiring! Check out the latest job listings here: http://www.imvu.com/jobs/index/, IMVU, Inc. is backed by venture investors Menlo Ventures, Allegis Capital, Bridgescale Partners and Best Buy Capital.

Join the IMVU community here:

Contact:
Lindsay Anne Aamodt
Director of Communications, IMVU, Inc.
P: 917 531 0658
[email protected]

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SOURCE IMVU, Inc.