On Friday, August 24th, starting at 9:00 AM at the Microsoft Edina office, we will be hosting a Windows 8 Hackathon.  You, worthy challenger, will be asked to develop a Windows 8 Metro-style application using either XAML, C++, C#, or HTML/JS and competing against other devs for eternal glory.  Oh, if your app is picked as one of the top three apps of the Hackathon, you will also win a Samsung Series 7 Slate AND a $500 gift card.  That’s right, three developers will win ~$1,800 in hardware and “cash”.  Come up with a truly great idea, and maybe become part of Generation App.  But I’m sure the eternal glory is much more important to you. :)

How do you win?  A panel of esteemed judges, including yours truly, will be evaluating your application in four areas:

1. Concept:  The more creative the application, the higher you can score.  Face it, another Calculator app is nice, but MegaTweetFace with Extra Hot Sauce is a much cooler application. No, I have no idea what MegaTweetFace with Extra Hot Sauce would actually be, but you get the idea.
2. Design:  How well does your application leverage Metro UX design principles?  Metro UX is more than boxes and monochrome colors, so if you don’t know how to design a cool Metro UX, make sure you ask a mentor at the event, check out http://design.windows.com, or come to the Windows 8 Dev Camp the day before (see below for details).
3. Metro Principles:  Does your app leverage things like Search, Share, Settings or other Windows 8 “Win as One” capabilities?  The more you use Metro features like that, the more points you will score.
4. Functionality:  How much works, what features are implemented, etc.?  Pretty easy to understand, though don’t show anything that crashes your app our you may be subjected to public humiliation, peer ridicule, and the title of Crash McGee. Ok, not really, but it sounded like fun.

You can register for the Hackathon here – http://aka.ms/MSPHack.  Don’t delay, space is limited!!!

Want to learn about Windows 8 dev using either XAML, C++, C#, or HTML/JS, you may want to come to the Windows 8 Dev Camp the day before – http://aka.ms/Camp  You can also check out Windows 8 in 30 Days.

We’ll be holding more Dev Camps and Hackathons in the near future, so if you can’t get into the August event, stay tuned for upcoming announcements.

Update:  Hackathon FAQ

1. Will I be able to get technical assistance? Yes.  There will be several different mentor/judges available while you are coding.  Use them.  Learn from them.  They can’t help you write your app, but they can answer questions, help with bugs, etc.
2. Do I have to finish the app at the Hackathon?  No.  Get done what you can get done.  The more you get done, the better your score, but you are not disqualified by not having a completed app.  Frankly, if you can get your app done in less than 12 hours, I think you will be scoring poorly on other areas outside of functionality.
3. Can I use OSS?  Yes.
4. Can I  start coding my app before the Hackathon?  Bringing with you things like design assets, flow diagrams, etc. is fine, but you shouldn’t have much done re: coding your app beyond File-?New Project.  It’s the honor system.
5. How can I learn Metro Design?  The http://design.windows.com web site is a good place to start.  Also checkout http://buildwindows.com for videos related to design.  If there is enough interest, we can deliver a “Intro to Metro Design” presentation at the beginning of the Hackathon.