Summary
Pretty simple. Use the Voice Apps service to make your own skill in 48 hours. The game can be as simple or as complex as you like, with the only real condition being that the user should have to give at least one response. Depending on the response I might try another one that gets more thematic, but this is my first time hosting an itch.io game jam so we'll see how it goes. :)
New to Alexa skills?
Speaking from experience, you could make an simple app and submit it to the store in minutes. I already have three live skills and just started using this last week. So 48 hours is really just to give you some time to experiment and explore how to create interesting interactions and responses. I have been a designer for Alexa skills in the past, but I was on a team and wasn't able to make the skills myself without a dedicated coder. Now I can create my own skills using this service and even monetize with it.
Not new to Alexa skills?
Because the prizes come from Voice Apps and their partnership with Amazon, all skills for this jam must use Voice Apps. So AWS developers who could make a skill through traditional kind still need to use Voice Apps, and don't dismiss it. From what I have seen so far, having advanced skills knowledge is still going to be helpful if you want to try something more advanced. Not required, but the use of slots and other features could allow for some interesting work.
How to get started
click the link below and get your account setup and get to it. You do not need to get the pro version to do the contest. So this totally free to do from soup to nuts.
Resources
Voice Apps website will point you there, but there is a nice channel that over a dozen videos about various aspects from making to publishing skills. All of them are very short and if you follow them, you'll see how quick and easy it is to get started.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMV0ey-4D0Boaj58x7FgsLw
Prizes!
So while I myself am not giving out prizes, thanks to Voice Apps, they have made a really exciting list of prize possibilities and here is the breakdown of what prizes are available.
- Publish your first skill and earn a custom Alexa Developer T-Shirt.
- Publish a skill with support for Alexa-enabled devices with screens, like Echo Show or Spot, and attract 50 unique users for the first three months, and you can earn an Echo Spot.
- Publish a skill that supports Alexa Gadgets, and earn a 2-pack of Echo Buttons!
- Publish the three skills above plus two more by October 31 to automatically qualify for the Alexa Super Skills Collectible.
- Building these skills with Voice Apps is quick and easy! Just customize one of our sample skills and you're done!
NOTE: you do not need to participate in this voice apps jam to get these prizes. Some require using Voice Apps but others are direct from Amazon meaning you could use anything you want. I just thought it was cool that they offer all this and figured it would be nice for folks to know with just a little effort they could earn any of these things.
Voting
I'm going to try any / all skills that go live on September 24th. If I have any special prizes by then the best skill creator will get something special, otherwise it will be street cred. :)
Pro Tips
-So having been through the certification process, I found that one of the big things they are watching out for that till insure you have a smoother certification process.
- using licensed brands and products in your skill without authorization. I have gone through a number of certification re-submissions for a simple random Minecraft facts app for my son. This means either using images (like the Steve face for an icon) and Minecraft being used in the title and invocation.. In the end I had to say it was an unofficial Minecraft facts skill.
- Make sure that your invocation name is consistent with the sample phrases (see in the publishing section of the welcome box)
- One word invocations will not pass. I had a skill i submitted called "Isolation" and that failed, but they accepted "My Isolation".
It really is easy with Voice Apps
I just started using this service a couple of weeks ago. I liked it so much I became a pro user the same day. I've made all of these skills with Voice apps and I have new ideas on the way. I've been learning from these skills doing various skills adding features to them as I get more familiar with the deeper possibilities with Voice Apps. https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dalexa-skills&field-ke...
Good luck and thanks for checking this out!