Golestan Province in northern Iran will host the second startup event dedicated to videogame design, said a deputy with the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.
A total of 120 teams will be competing in the event scheduled for August 17-19, IRNA quoted Qasem Qandehari as saying.
Some of the categories are game design, level design, graphics design and coding.
According to the official, the event will be held at Golestan Science and Technology Park and aims to help support the growth of game developers.
"As more and more Iranian gamers have emerged in the past years, widespread support was dedicated to empowering videogame producers as well as the production cycle. It can, therefore, be said that the future of gaming is bright for Iran."
He did, however, admit that Iran's gaming industry is still in its early stages.
"The Iran Computer and Videogames Foundation is only eight years young and there is a long way ahead before we can compete with major western game developers," he said.
According to the official, over 95% of the videogames available in Iran have been smuggled into the country.
Prizes and Investors
The CEO of a Golestan-based gaming company named IRANA plans to promote the province as the gaming hub of the country.
"Winning teams will be granted 400 million rials ($11,430) worth of non-cash prizes by the accelerators and investors present," Peyman Yaqoubi also said.
The top teams can attend 200 hours of game developing courses that will be free of charge and can make use of the facilities at the science and technology park.
The teams have until August 13 to register for the event, the entry fee of which is 1 million rials ($30) per entrant. Enthusiasts can refer to http://www.iranafoundation.ir/ for more information.
Yaqoubi noted that the development of the gaming sector can potentially create 1 million jobs in Iran.
1/3rd of Iranians Play Videogames
Results of a recent study show that nearly one-third of all Iranians play videogames. Latest research carried out by the research center for digital games show that 23 million Iranians play videogames, 53% of whom do so on a regular basis, ITNA reported.
The information provided by the research center—affiliated to Iran's Computer and Videogames Foundation—show that 77% of all Iranian gamers play on mobile phones.
Results show that 63% of all gamers are men and a majority of Iranians, who regularly play videogames, are in the 12-19 age group.
