Immerse Yourself: A Peek Inside Tezos and Ubisoft's HackXArt Hackathon
The first edition of HackArtX sought to explore and deepen the relationship between blockchain technology, Tezos, and the immersive digital art/gaming potential of the Web 3.0-driven future.
Originally published at Tezos Commons News
900 words, 5 minute read
In the rapidly-evolving world of blockchain-powered gaming, forging partnerships with established global brands matters. As Europe’s largest game developer — and one which serves a healthy chunk of the lucrative global gaming market, has brought no shortage of brand-recognition cache along with it since it took its first steps into the Tezos ecosystem back in 2021.
Ubisoft certainly isn’t alone in this regard, but it’s an extremely important brand in the gaming space, working closely with massive gaming franchises from Assassin’s Creed to Mario Brothers to Star Wars and many more in between.
While early-stage partnerships like this one have yet to reveal their true long-term purpose here in the Tezos ecosytem, they’re certainly worth keeping an eye on. As such relationships evolve, they represent a huge opportunity for those working in the Tezos ecosystem to build out new use-cases for technology in many new and promising arenas. Exactly what these use-cases will look like in practice, and what part Tezos will play in the Web 3.0-enabled reality ahead remains somewhat unclear at this juncture, but we are starting to develop a sense of one potential use case in the form of NFTs, and each tentative experimental step toward fleshing out the truth bears close consideration.
Enter, HackArtX.
In the first edition of HackArtX — which took place at Ubisoft HQ in Saint-Mandé, France from June 16-18 of this year, HackArtX sought to explore and deepen the relationship between blockchain technology, Tezos, and the immersive digital art/gaming potential of the Web 3.0-driven future.
HackArtX matched up 6 top international digital artists with their own teams of developers, blockchain experts, and gaming professionals to explore this year’s theme: “What’s a living artwork in the Web 3.0 era?”. Each artist, developer, and game professional had the discretion to collaboratively compose their individual art pieces in whichever way each saw fit.
The amazing digital artists invited to participate in the first edition of HackArtX included:
Those following the event were invited to vote on their favourite submission on Discord. The submission receiving the most votes was a awarded a special “community prize”, and a panel of judges reviewed the work to hand out other prizes to all the entrants who participated in this lively and fascinating event.
Winners! #
The HackArtX 2023 winners were announced as follows: #
The FAM Prize — awarded to the submission selected by community voters on the Hackathon Discord server. Won by Tabitha Swanson and team for their entry**“Sun Burn”**, awarded €2,300 in XTZ.
The IT’S ALIVE Prize — awarded to the submission that seems and feels alive due to its autonomous and evolutive aspects. Won by Lauren Moffat and team for their entry**“Body of Water”**, awarded €2,300 in XTZ.
The USER JOURNEY Prize — awarded to the team that created an artwork with a seamless user experience and enjoyable journey. Won by Johann Baron Lanteigne and team for their entry**“NFT Dumpster Diving Machine”**, awarded €2,300 in XTZ.
The POLISHED Prize — awarded to the entry that showcased a highly developed end result that is ready to be showcased to the public. Won by Martina Menegon and team for their entry “Forget-me-not”, awarded€2,300 in XTZ.
The TECH Prize — awarded to the team which created an artwork with the most elegant technical implementation. Won by u2p050 and team for their entry “The Immutable Biome”, awarded €2,300 in XTZ***.***
The WOAW Prize — awarded to the team which created a striking and innovative artwork that stands out. Won By Harriet Davey and team for their entry “Game Over”, awarded €2,300 in XTZ. Harriet’s submission also took home the coveted Special Prize from RSTLSS by Charli Cohen, which grants Harriet the opportunity to collaborate on RSTLSS’ next collection of digital wearables.
With these amazing artists bringing their disparate styles and skillsets to take on this challenge, and with some of the finest minds the gaming world and digital art world have to offer lending their invaluable support every step of the way, this first-of-its-kind event answered some important questions about the future of Tezos-powered art/gaming while producing some incredible and groundbreaking work along the way.
Congratulations to all who participated in the first edition of HackArtX, and we hope to see you all again at Edition 2!