Meta VR Start Developer Competition 2026

Requirements

WHAT TO BUILD

An experience built for Meta VR devices, aligned to at least one of three tracks. Top awards go to the strongest entries in each track, with special awards recognizing standout craft across all of them.

Pick Your Track

• Entertainment: Lean-back media and content experiences—spatial cinema, interactive video, music visualization, immersive storytelling, spatial audio, media companion apps (e.g., commentary tracks, popup production notes, social comments. Content designed to be consumed in any environment. 
• Gaming: Games designed for hands-first or eyes and hands. Puzzle, strategy, casual, social, narrative—genres that thrive seated, without controllers.
• Productivity: Apps that make you more effective anywhere or are designed around specific daily moments—multi-panel workspaces, task management, creative tools, or habits tied to a recurring context (morning routine, commute, wind-down).

Pick Your Division

• New Experience: Start from a blank slate. The Project is conceived of and built within the competition window, beginning September 24, 2026. No pre-existing codebases, no shipped titles, no early access builds repurposed.
• Adapted/Significantly Updated Experience: Already have something out there? Take it further. This is a pre-existing project—any build, prototype, or published app that existed prior to September 24, 2026—with a meaningful new feature, mode, or platform integration shipped during the competition window. Sponsor will determine in its own discretion if an update qualifies as significant.
  • Examples of significant updates include, but are not limited to: implementing hand interactions as a new feature; adding multiplayer support; introducing a mixed reality (MR) interaction mode as a new feature; releasing a new user generated content creation tool.
  • Not significant updates, including but not limited to: bug fixes or minor UI tweaks; cosmetic changes such as a new color scheme; performance optimization without new user-facing features.

Hard Requirements

• Hands-first: Your experience must be fully usable with hands, end-to-end. Controller support is welcome, but not required. The test is simple: can someone complete the entire experience without ever pairing a controller?
• Policy Compliance: Your experience must adhere to all relevant Meta VR/Start policies and terms (i.e., Meta VR Start Program Terms, Community Standards, Code of Conduct in VR Policy, Developer App Policies, Developer Content Guidelines, and all other Developer Policies).

Design Guidelines

• Seated-optimized: Design for seated, stationary use. Limit roomscale, no large physical movement. Apply the airplane seat test: does every interaction work in a two-foot radius?
• Easy to get into and out of: Fast cold start, clean pause/resume, and something satisfying in 10 minutes or less. Apply the one bus stop test: can someone have a complete moment in a short ride?
• Original, not a wrapper: Core experience is Entrant-built. Thin wrappers around existing platforms or services (YouTube, ChatGPT, etc.) are highly discouraged. Apply the take it away test: if you remove the third-party service, is there still a Project?

Suggested SDKs:

• Unity: Meta XR SDKs v81+ (v207) All-in-One XR
• Unreal: Unreal Engine 5.8 and Oculus Integration SDK v207+
• Android apps: React Native via Expo, or Jetpack Compose via Meta VR Plugin for Android Studio
• Immersive Web SDK: Node.js (v20.19.0 or higher); IWSDK (run npm create @iwsdk@latest for the latest version)
  
  

WHAT TO SUBMIT

Three things: a playable build, a short video, and the submission form. Get the build access right—judges can’t score what they can’t launch.

1. Your Project, as defined in What to Build.

• Built with Unity, Unreal, Godot, Android/Native or similar custom engine: upload an APK to a new release channel named “Competition” in the Meta VR Developer Dashboard. Create and submit an Invite URL so judges can access and test your Project.
• Built with IWSDK (WebXR): see Deploying to GitHub Pages for how to share a link. You may also use your preferred hosting solution (e.g., Vercel, Digital Ocean, AWS, Azure).
• Once the Entry Period has ended, you may not make changes or alterations to your submission. Judging is based on the state of the Entry at the submission deadline. Ensure your Project remains available and accessible throughout judging.

2. A demonstration video—under three (3) minutes, showcasing footage of your Project as viewed on a Meta VR device, via XR Simulator, or another equivalent emulator. Upload it to YouTube or Vimeo, make it publicly visible, and provide the link on the submission form. Judges are not required to watch beyond three minutes, so lead with your best material.

3. A complete Submission Form, which includes but is not limited to:

• Submission name
• Submission tagline (140 characters)
• Track: Entertainment, Gaming, or Productivity
• Division: New Experience, or Adapted / Significantly Updated Experience
• A text description covering your inspiration, how you built it, and future plans for improvement (suggested length: 500 words or less)
• If your Project is an Adapted / Significantly Updated build, a summary of the new features and capabilities added during the competition window. Screenshots, changelogs, and demo videos are highly recommended.
• Describe how Hand Interactions are implemented into your experience and what excites you about the future of VR (optional)
• Target launch date, if not already published
• Name(s), email(s), and role(s) for each team member, if applicable

View full competition rules.

Judging Criteria and Process

Please see the full details on the Judging Criteria and process here.