Thursday, August 13, 2015

ODTUG APEX Gaming Competition 2015

If you're not aware, there is an APEX Gaming Competition which is already underway, and which is sponsored by the Oracle Development Tools User Group (ODTUG).  For those who don't know what ODTUG is, it is an independent user group and community of professionals, with a primary focus on the tools, products, and frameworks to build solutions and applications with the Oracle technology stack.  Although ODTUG is based in the USA, they have members (thousands of them) around the globe.

The purpose of the APEX Gaming Competition is simply to show off what you can do with APEX, and instead of crafting a business solution or transactional application, the goal here is a bit more whimsical and fun.  The solution can be desktop or mobile or both.  Personally, if I had the time, I'd like to write a blackjack simulator and try and improve upon the basic strategy.  I'm not sure that could be classified as a "game", but it would enable me to go to Las Vegas and clean house!

If you're looking to make a name for yourself in the Oracle community, one way to do it is through ODTUG.  And if you're looking to make a name for yourself in the APEX community, one way to stand out is through the APEX Gaming Competition.  Just ask Robert Schaefer from Köln, Germany.  Robert won the APEX Theming Competition in 2014, and now everyone in the APEX Community knows who Robert is!  I've actually had the good fortune of meeting Robert in person - twice!

Yesterday I listened to the APEX Talkshow podcast with Jürgen Schuster and Shakeeb Rahman (Jürgen is a luminary in the APEX community and Shakeeb is on the Oracle APEX development team, he is the creator of the Universal Theme).  And in this podcast, I was reminded how Shakeeb's first introduction to Oracle was...by winning a competition, when he was a student!  You simply never know what the future holds.  So - whether you're a student or a professional, whether you're in Ireland or the Ivory Coast, this is an opportunity for you to shine in front of this wonderful global APEX Community.  Submissions close in 2 months, so hurry!  Go to http://competition.odtug.com