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XMG announces the great Canadian appathon

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Abhigna
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TORONTO, CANADA: Once more, award winning mobile games studio XMG is challenging students from coast-to-coast to test their talent and carry on the legacy that is the Great Canadian Appathon (GCA): a crazy, intense and exhaustingly wonderful hackathon to design the next hit mobile game in just 48 hours.

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From January 17th to January 19th Canadian college and university students will race against the clock and take their chance at winning a $25,000 grand prize, $5,000 runner-up prize and numerous category prizes. In addition, the top 15 teams of the GCA4 will receive a VIP ticket to participate in Canada's first national open data hackathon, the Canadian Open Data Experience (CODE), which includes a seat in the invite-only CODE hacker-hub in Toronto as well as travel and accommodation.

"We are proud to announce that going into its fourth year, the GCA remains not only the largest and most national appathon in Canada, but it is also the first and only hackathon to be officially sponsored in part by the Canadian Government," says Ray Sharma, president and founder of XMG Studio Inc.

"But this is by far not the only new and exciting change: McDonald's has stepped up and will help feed the hungry hoards of hackers as the official food sponsor and we're bringing in the art schools in a way that has never been done before. We have built a custom tool that allows, for example, a developer from the University of Ottawa to link up with an artist from the Ontario College of Art & Design to collaborate!"

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Taking a completely new approach to the creation of teams and allowing students to connect and find each other across the boarders of different fields of study, schools and provinces, the GCA4 has kicked expectations for national hackathons up a notch. The specially developed matchmaking tool in the sign-in section of the GCA4 website allows anyone to find the team members needed to take an idea from concept to completion.

The GCA4 will start at 5 p.m. (local time) on January 17th, 2014 and continue for 48 hours, ending at 5p.m. on January 19th, 2014. Following the event, the submitted games will be evaluated on criteria such as the degree of innovation, the fun and entertainment factor, the level of art and design polish as well as stability.

The three finalists will be honoured on February 13th 2014 in Toronto at the Grand Finale event where they will demo their games in front of a live audience and the GCA celebrity judges.

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