Overview
The Global Gamers Challenge is an 8-week challenge, sponsored by Flutter and Global Citizen, to design, build, and publish sustainable games using Flutter. Join to learn how sustainable games can empower players to take small actions for the environment that when done collectively, lead to large impact, and experience the fun of building a Flutter game!
Get Started
Get Inspired
Flutter Casual Games Toolkit
The Flutter Casual Games Toolkit is a collection of templates and developer resources to make game development more productive with Flutter. Explore the games toolkit to source some inspiration for your Global Gamers Challenge game!
Explore now
Prizes
Compete for prizes like a free trip to NYC to hang out with the Flutter team and the VIP treatment at the next Global Citizen Festival. Check out the prizes and categories on the contest page.
Explore prizes
Extra Credit
Google Wallet
If you’re up for some extra credit, we’ve partnered with Google Wallet to offer an additional challenge to deploy an innovative integration of the Google Wallet API in your game.
Learn moreFAQs
Frequently Asked
Questions
What is this?
The Global Gamers Challenge is a coding challenge that promotes the innovative use of Flutter, Dart, and the surrounding Google ecosystem to create games that educate and inspire players about environmental issues and empower them to take action in their own lives.
When is this?
You can submit games to this challenge from January 9, 2024 through March 5, 2024. Winners will be announced in early May 2024.
What are sustainable games?
Sustainable games combine the entertaining part of games with education and inspiration for players to make positive changes for the environment.
Do I need to register to participate?
Yes. Registration can be completed at devpost.com.
Do I need to pay?
No. You do not need to pay anything to participate.
How are the winners selected?
After submissions close on March 5th, a panel of judges will select a Top 20 based on criteria laid out in the rules and on the prizes page. The Top 20 games will then have a chance to polish their games before another panel of judges selects up to 10 finalists.
Are there prizes?
Check out the prizes on the prizes page.
How can I stay informed?
Follow Flutter and Global Citizen on X/Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube to stay up to date.
Schedule
Global Gamers
Challenge
Timeline
Jan. 9, 2024: Submissions Open
Make sure to get an early start building your team and contest submission!
Mar. 5, 2024: Submissions Close
Submit your project on DevPost. Cutoff time is 2:59 PM Pacific Standard Time (-8 UTC).
End of March 2024: Top 20 Announcement
Tune back in to see if your project is one of the Top 20!
May 2024: Winner Announcement
Top 20 finalists will vie for one of 10 final winner slots, announced in May 2024.
Resources
Check out the resources listed below to help kickstart your Global Gamers Challenge submission!
Sustainability Resources
We teamed up with Global Citizen for this challenge because we believe the best solutions happen when technologists and activists come together. The most successful submissions will demonstrate a deep understanding of the issues and opportunities that environmental games represent. Check out these resources from our partners to get up to speed.
- Global Citizen Journey → This 5-day interactive journey will introduce you to sustainable games, Flutter, and maybe even a little reward for your Google Wallet!
- More from Global Citizen's Defend the Planet campaigns → Explore more of the campaigns Global Citizen is running to inspire the world to defend our planet.
- Green Game Design Website → Access resources and summarized example games sourced and recommended by experts in environmental games.
- Environmental Games Best Practices Playbook → Recommended by Playing 4 the Planet, this is the same playbook that the world's largest game studios use when creating green game activations!
- Climate Game Toolkit Creator Talk → Watch Arnaud Fayolle, Art Director at Ubisoft Positive Play, give a talk on sustainable games at GDC 2022.
Getting Started with Flutter
It can be difficult to learn a new skill. Check out the resources below for a couple recommendations we have on getting started.
- IDE → If you're new to Flutter, the first thing you'll need to do is set up your development environment. The classic way to write Flutter code is to download the Flutter SDK and build locally in the IDE (e.g. VS Code with the Flutter Extension) so you can experience the full power of Flutter, such as Hot Reload. If you don't have an IDE or wants to skip the SDK installation process to quickly get started, we have also provided a few other options:
- Project IDX → An experimental initiative for bringing your entire full-stack, multiplatform app dev workflow to your web browser. Note: IDX is on a waitlist right now, but they've opened their sign up list for Global Gamers Challenge participants, so make sure to access IDX with the same email you registered with to try it out! It may take 1-2 days to access IDX after you register for the hackathon on DevPost.
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Notes:
- 1) IDX is on a waitlist right now, but they've opened their sign up list for Global Gamers Challenge participants, so make sure to access IDX with the same email you registered with to try it out! It may take 1-2 days to access IDX after you register for the hackathon on DevPost.
- 2) Developers in the EU are currently unable to access IDX. This is very high on their list of items to address, and they are working closely with our partners across Google's legal and privacy teams to give you access soon.
- FlutterFlow → A low-code builder that lets you design and build Flutter apps.
- Project IDX → An experimental initiative for bringing your entire full-stack, multiplatform app dev workflow to your web browser. Note: IDX is on a waitlist right now, but they've opened their sign up list for Global Gamers Challenge participants, so make sure to access IDX with the same email you registered with to try it out! It may take 1-2 days to access IDX after you register for the hackathon on DevPost.
- CodeLabs
- Learn how to build your first Flutter app → If you're new to Flutter, but have some development background, this is a great way to get started on your Flutter development journey.
- Build your first Flutter game → Try this codelab where you'll build your first Flutter game with the Flame game engine! In this codelab, you will build a game inspired by one of the classics of '70s video games, Steve Wozniak's Breakout. You will use Flame's Components, to draw the bat, ball, and bricks. You will utilize Flame's Effects to animate the bat's movement and see how to integrate Flame with Flutter's state management system.
- Community Chat → Join the community of folks building as part of the Global Gamers Challenge for help and ideas! Look for the channel titled, #global-gamers-challenge !
- Project Planning Tips → Big projects can be tough to keep up with. Check out these tips from DevPost for breaking your project into smaller pieces so you can ensure you finish on time!
Flutter Casual Games Toolkit
The Flutter Casual Games Toolkit is a collection of templates and recommended developer resources to make game development even more productive with Flutter. Feel free to augment one of the templates to turbo boost your game's development timeline or simply take inspiration from the templates and resources.
- Documentation → Head directly to documentation if you're looking for more specific information.
- Flutter game art Starter Kit → In addition to the game art resources included in the Flutter Casual Games Toolkit, we are excited to share assets from Flutter games and demos we've created over the years specially for this challenge.
- Note: assets may only be used in submissions and not for other purposes
Contest Updates
Global Gamers Challenge Announcement Video
Learn everything you need to know about the Global Gamers Challenge
Global Gamers Challenge Judges Announcement
Meet the judges for the Global Gamers Challenge!
COMING SOON
COMING SOON
Flutter Games
Introducing the Flutter Casual Games Toolkit
Learn why Flutter is a great choice for game developers and get to know the Flutter Casual Games Toolkit, a collection of tools, templates, and resources to make game development in Flutter faster and easier, provided free and open source so that developers can easily modify and tweak it to suit their needs.
Quick start to building a game in Flutter
Flutter is becoming a popular tool for game development. This video is a part of Google's effort to make it easier for Flutter developers to start building games.
Observable Flutter: Slow-coding Pong
Watch as Craig Labenz is joined by Flame's creator, Lukas Klingsbo (@spydon) to touch up last week's hasty Pong implementation and discuss Flame best practices.
Flame (Package of the Week)
Flame is a game engine built on top of Flutter. It comes with the building blocks that are often needed for building games like a game loop, an object component system, collision detection, and a whole lot more!
Building Doodle Dash with Flutter & Flame | Learning to Fly
In season 2 of Learning to Fly, we're building a game called Doodle Dash, inspired by Doodle Jump. Play as Dash, and help her reach as high as possible by jumping on platforms. It's a vertical infinite runner game!
Doodle Dash & Flame: Collision detection, menus, and more! | Learning to Fly
In season 2 of Learning to Fly, we're building a game called Doodle Dash, inspired by Doodle Jump. Play as Dash, and help her reach as high as possible by jumping on platforms. It's a vertical infinite runner game!
Adding enemies, power ups, and custom config to Doodle Dash | Learning to Fly
Our Flame game is starting to come together. To polish things off, we've added brand new custom Doodle Dash assets and some more options! Play Doodle Dash as Dash OR Sparky. All new platforms, enemies, and power ups.
Building a Dash Game with Flame | Learning to Fly
In this episode of Learning to Fly, Khanh rebuilds a classic game in Flutter… Flappy Dash! Help Dash safely navigate the skies as pieces of luggage tumble toward her. We also welcome a special guest to the Flutter YouTube channel for the very first time!
Flutter, Dart, and Raspberry Pi
Learn how Flutter on the Raspberry Pi enables makers to build exciting new embedded user interfaces. The Raspberry Pi was introduced as a tool to teach computer science, but since its introduction has been a staple in every maker's toolbox. It's been used as the basis for maker projects such as IoT devices, game emulators, and kiosks. So this is the answer to "What would a Flutter & Raspberry Pi game console look like?"
Explore
Challenge Guide
This is a guided path for your journey towards building an awesome Flutter game! Think of it like a typical game map. Explore each mission below and feel free to skip missions that you’re already familiar with, or that are not useful to your success.
Write your first lines of Flutter code!
Register on DevPost!
Become a Global Citizen!
Find your team!
Set up your development environment!
Build your first Flutter app!
Build your first Flutter game!
Get started with the Flutter Casual Games Toolkit!
Explore the Google Wallet API!
Submit your project!
The Google Wallet API Challenge
Google Wallet keeps everything protected in one place, so you can access essentials like your payment cards, loyalty cards, concert tickets, and more, no matter where you go. And Google Wallet is not constrained in the types of passes you can add to your wallet, thanks to the Generic Passes feature.
We want to challenge you to think of innovative ways to digitize assets and add them to your users' Google Wallet, while empowering them to come together and take actions for the environment.
As an example of the possibilities of Generic Passes, at Google I/O ‘23, we partnered with the Flutter team and we created a set of collectible cards for the I/O FLIP game using Generic Passes. If you check the the U-go-I/O demo and answer the questions correctly, you'll be able to add Dash, Dino, Sparky, and other characters from the I/O FLIP game to your Google Wallet as collectible cards. To get you even more excited about this challenge, you can add one of collectible cards by clicking on the button below:
The Challenge
Use the Google Wallet API for issuing and sharing passes within your Global Gamers Challenge game!
Prizes
Google Wallet is going to award prizes in two different categories: Best Google Wallet API integration, and Best Google Wallet API integration with Japanese localization. In each category, prizes will be awarded for the best integration, for the runner-up, and for third place.
The best integration will receive a 7,500 USD prize, with 5,000 USD prize for the runner-up, and 2,500 USD prize for third place. All winners will also receive an opportunity to have a virtual coffee with a Google Wallet team member, and promotion of their project subject to Google's discretion.
Judging
- Your submission must have a successful integration with the Google Wallet API, meaning that your users will need to be able to add your passes to their Google Wallet. Your passes can be assets like raffle tickets, collectible cards, collectible awards, or anything else you can create!
- We'll be considering the social sharing features of the integration: if your application uses the Google Wallet API in ways that promote interactions between your users. Some examples could be collecting and sharing passes between your users (such as collectibles), or interacting with something in the real world (like a QR code) to be able to collect special passes in your Google Wallet.
- We'll consider how innovative your usage of the Google Wallet API is. We mentioned collectibles, like collectible cards, but you can use your imagination to create digital versions of anything and make them available for your users to save in their Google Wallet.
Resources
Google Wallet API Developer documentation: developers.google.com/wallet
Google Wallet API samples repository: github.com/google-wallet/rest-samples
Google Wallet API Developer Newsletter sign-up: g.co/wallet/newsletter
Note: Google Wallet is available in these countries
Prizes
We're committed to awarding prizes for more than just great coding ability. Explore the list of prizes below to see what you could be eligible for - there's something for everyone!
Finalist Prizes
Judges will select up to 10 finalists. Up to 3 members from each team will receive travel to and lodging in New York City, a day with the Flutter team in the Google NYC office, VIP tickets to the 2024 Global Citizen Festival, digital recognition, and a swag pack.
Finalists will:
- Address a significant sustainability issue
- Have potential for real-world impact
- Include an innovative and engaging game concept
- Demonstrate high code quality, including, but not limited to adherence to best practices for accessibility and performance
- Bonus points will be awarded for:
- Multi platform deployment
- Educational elements
- Social interaction
Bonus Prizes
Bonus prize winners will receive a swag pack and digital recognition.
Best Demo
The best demo video will captivate viewers with its clear, concise, and engaging presentation of the game concept and gameplay. It will showcase the game's strengths, highlight its sustainability message, innovative features, and captivating gameplay mechanics. At the end of the demo, viewers want to pick up a device to play the game and leave the audience with a clear understanding of the game's value and potential impact.
Best Educational Content
The game with the Best Educational Content will go beyond mere gameplay, offering learning opportunities that seamlessly integrate with the game experience. It will leverage the power of games to educate players about either sustainability issues or technical aspects of game development, providing accurate, engaging, and age-appropriate information. Educational content can be tutorials, quizzes, interactive game elements, and even branching storylines aligned with the game's narrative and message.
Honorable Mention
Top 20 projects that are not selected as finalists will receive an honorable mention.
Community Choice
The community will vote on DevPost.com for their favorite games. The 5 games with the most votes will receive a community choice award.
Google Wallet Prizes
Google Wallet is also offering up to $30,000 in cash prizes for innovative integrations of the Google Wallet API into a Flutter game. Learn more about the challenge here.
Best Integration - 1st Place ($7,500)
Best Integration - 2nd Place ($5,000)
Best Integration - 3rd Place ($2,500)
Best Integration in Japanese - 1st Place ($7,500)
Best Integration in Japanese - 2nd Place ($5,000)
Best Integration in Japanese - 3rd Place ($2,500)
Edit this Flutter pong game
Get a small taste of what it's like to develop games in Flutter with this quick tutorial and challenge
Step 1: Run the game
Click run and try to complete the game, getting a sense for how it works.
Step 2: Change the background color
The game's current background color is red. The code below changes the background color to blue. Change it to a color of your choice.
@override
Color backgroundColor() => Colors.blue;
Step 3: Make the ball move faster
Now this game is all about making the ball move fast. See if you can make the ball move a bit faster by making the following change:
static const double startingBallSpeed = 2.5;
Step 4: Change element sizes!
Based on the last two steps, can you figure out how to change the size of the ball and/or the width of the paddles? (Hint: the image shows you where you might look!)
Challenge #1 Aspect Ratios and Responsiveness
The game is currently only balanced in a specific aspect ratio. Can you decide on a different aspect ratio and embed the game in the maximum amount of space that aspect ratio can take up within the actual available space?
Challenge #2 Angles & Physics
In real Pong, the ball bounces at different angles off the paddle, depending on where it strikes the paddle. In this Pong game, it does not (it always bounces at a 45° angle).
Can you implement a bounce algorithm closer to the original Pong's actual algorithm?
(Hint: In Pong, the ball does not bounce according to the normal laws of physics. Instead, if the ball hits the exact center of the paddle, it will bounce straight out, regardless of its incoming angle. Otherwise, the higher up the ball collides with the paddle, the steeper the angle of its upward bounce. Likewise, the lower down the ball collides with the paddle, the steeper the angle of its downward bounce)