We are thrilled to partner with Alibaba Cloud for a new DEV challenge.
Running through April 13 April 27, the Alibaba Cloud Web Game Challenge inv...
For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse
I love this! Challenge accepted @jess @ben 💯
Good luck!
I’d like to kindly suggest extending the deadline for the Alibaba challenge. With several submissions still incomplete and overall participation appearing low, a short extension could greatly improve the quality and number of entries. This would help ensure a more well-rounded selection of winners and motivate more developers to take part. Thank you for considering this!
@uzondu9 we agree!
Deadline Extended for the Alibaba Cloud Web Game Challenge!
dev.to staff for The DEV Team ・ Apr 11
Built a cool #Python project using #AI, #ML & agentic AI! Check out the full walkthrough and demo in my latest YouTube video.
Watch now
MachineLearning #DeepLearning #Coding
youtu.be/r9Altvw30Sg?si=UHh9RRW8ax...
Built a cool #Python project using #AI, #ML & agentic AI! Check out the full walkthrough and demo in my latest YouTube video.
Watch now
MachineLearning #DeepLearning #Coding
youtu.be/r9Altvw30Sg?si=UHh9RRW8ax...
I think so
Hey DEV Community 👋,
I’m participating in the Alibaba Cloud Web Game Challenge and hit a roadblock while setting up my infrastructure. Here’s the situation:
1️⃣ Goal : Deploy a Node.js/WebSocket server for a robot battle game using Alibaba’s ECS t5 Free Tier (1C1G).
2️⃣ Issue : Getting the error “Sorry you are not eligible for this campaign” despite being a new user.
3️⃣ Steps Taken :
Submitted a support ticket to Alibaba Cloud (no response yet 😕).
Tried different regions (Singapore/US West) – same error.
Verified my account is fully verified.
Question for the Community :
Has anyone faced this issue? Any workarounds to access ECS or alternatives like PolarDB/ApsaraDB?
For those in restricted regions (India/Australia), how did you bypass the geo-limitations?
Can I use Function Compute or SAE instead for a lightweight backend?
The challenge deadline is April 13, and I’m stuck on step 1. Any guidance would save my project! 🙏
Technical Context :
Game Stack: Phaser.js (frontend) + Node.js (backend).
Need: Persistent server for matchmaking + real-time battles.
Hello, dear friend,
I am from the web operation team of Alibaba Cloud. Srry that we just saw your message. Can you please provide your UID and issue ticket (If you have ) to us? I will get an assistance for you as soon as possible.
Hi @poppy_wang ,
I am also facing this issue and have raised a ticket with the team. Also, In my case I want to use ApsaraDB for RDS and there it is again asking me to submit the ticket in case of free trial.
Ticket number - 006521R4TD.
Please let me know if you need any other details from my side. Thanks
Customer solution team will respond your question as soon as possible, if issue is not solved please send me your UID for check.
I’ve had a similar experience — I couldn’t access the free trial through the provided link, and with the deadline approaching, I had to go for a much simpler setup on ECS due to cost concerns and paid for the instance. Unfortunately, my request for the trial was denied since I had already made a purchase and am no longer considered a new customer. On top of that, ECS performance has been extremely slow. I raised a ticket, but support insists everything is fine. To compare, I tested the same setup on a similarly sized virtual machine from another provider, and the performance difference is significant. Overall, I’m quite disappointed with how things have turned out.
Please let me know your UID, and I will have the web team to track its issue.
I have a small concept in mind for multiple player FPS(first person shooter) game.
Simple and playable. But I don’t have too much time or skills to completely build it myself.
I can work on certain parts of the design and architecture. As long as we are developing and designing modularly I can vibe code.
If anyone’s interested in collaborating let me know. Let’s have fun 🥂
Good luck everyone!
Welcome the deadline extending. The first one is unrealistict short.
I hardly have any idea about game dev, but this is the perfect time to vibe code something. I'm excited.
🙌
I tried to purchase a free tier of the
ecs.t5-lc1m1.smalland the order says that it is more than $100Also, I tried to get a resource plan for the CDN and the amount to pay it says that it is $4.00
I did use the link specified to create my account, but I couldn't complete the whole sign process at the moment so I continued later, I don't know if that affected the free tier somehow, or if it is because I got a 50% coupon (which in the screenshots there I didn't use it).
I don't know if that is what it should happen and then automatically that amount gets discounted to $0.00, but there isn't any clear indication about it, and I find it confusing, also I already clicked on the button that say “Free Trial”, but no different results so far.
Hopefully there will be more clearance about it in the next few days so I can have enough time to create my entry.
Hi ! Friend, Here is the responce I got from IT support from the Web Team.
Each user only has one chance of free trail for one product.
First, you must enter through the free trial page. Then, check if there are any interception prompts.
If there’s no interception and they land directly on the purchase page, it is likely not first-time buyers.
Also, Users who have added PayPal as a payment method, been intercepted by risk control, or have not completed their information are not eligible to participate in the free trial.
Some update, the support team made research on my card, and they said that the bank rejected the transaction.
So, in any case, I think I'll pass on this competition, GG, everyone.
Hello, thanks for reaching out to me.
I did open a support ticket, and yes, the payment method I added was PayPal and I think that's why the in the order the discounted price didn't appear, but even though I tried to add a physical debit card (yes, with more than $1.00 available) I had an error, so, I don't know why, I don't know if it had to do anything with the bank I'm using, or I don't know.
I don't know if this issue will be fixed, I already mention this to support, maybe they still will help me with this. In any case, thanks.
This is going to be a fun one!
They are the same thing just with different domain names.
Please use our official register link on DEV website in order to track the participants for the Hackathon.
Hi, Dear Friend, I understand your situation. Since this Hackathon is sponsored by Alibaba Cloud for expanding the International Market, so we can only accept First Time Users to Alibaba Cloud. However, there are many Hackathon opportunities in Aliyun, operated by our company Chinese website.
Please explore Chinese Hackathons on our Aliyun Page, eg. aliyun.com/about/aihands-on?
I am very sorry, dear friend. This Hackathon is only for Alibaba Cloud International participants.
If you do have different card to access Alibaba Cloud Free trial then it will be eligible.
Thanks for ping me for the bug! Fixed!
Initial Problem: The Hytopia server failed to start inside the Docker container, crashing with an ENOENT: no such file or directory error for /root/.bun/install/cache/mediasoup@3.15.7@@@1/worker/out/Release/mediasoup-worker. This indicated the required mediasoup-worker native binary was missing.
Added Build Tools: We modified the Dockerfile to install necessary build tools (python3, make, g++) before bun install, suspecting they were needed to compile mediasoup-worker. This initially didn't fix the issue, likely due to Docker's build cache.
Forced Rebuild (--no-cache): Rebuilding the image with --no-cache still resulted in the ENOENT error.
Explicit Postinstall: Adding an explicit step to run mediasoup's postinstall script failed because bun install wasn't creating a local node_modules directory in that build context.
Corrected Dockerfile Order: We changed the Dockerfile to COPY . . (copying all source code) before RUN bun install. This allowed bun install to correctly build mediasoup-worker.
Final Outcome: The server now starts successfully within the Docker container on the ECS instance, connecting to the database and initializing the game, running without the volume mount and with the correct database credentials.
Refer HermitONL 0.1 (RobotCapitol): a 3D Game to learn Bitcoin (Russian Roulette Drop style)
Hi friends where have you guys hosted your games I would love to play them. Use our platform for sharing with the world.
I’ve been creating AiGameBoy, a platform where you can showcase your AI-crafted games, and I think it’s the perfect spot to share your challenge entries.
robot bip bip bip 🤖
Hey DEV crew,
The Alibaba Cloud Web Game Challenge got me hyped (but I am from India) —robot-themed games built with AI and Alibaba’s cloud stack? Yes, please! 🤖 I’ve been creating AiGameBoy, a platform where you can showcase your AI-crafted games, and I think it’s the perfect spot to share your challenge entries.
Imagine uploading your ECS-hosted bot-brawler or ApsaraDB-powered puzzle-droid for the community to play. I tried making a game myself, and the AI spat out a rogue toaster bot that shoots bagels—gloriously weird! 😆
If you joined the challenge, drop your game on AiGameBoy and let’s see what you built! What’s the quirkiest thing your AI came up with? Can’t wait to play your creations! 🎮
AlibabaCloudChallenge #GameDev #AI #IndieGames #WebGames
I'm not clear on the requirements.
If we already have an account, should we use a different email?
What should we do if we are from India or Australia? I didn’t understand what You may consider using global cloud access solutions to participate (such as secure remote access tools) means.
Built a cool #Python project using #AI, #ML & agentic AI! Check out the full walkthrough and demo in my latest YouTube video.
Watch now
MachineLearning #DeepLearning #Coding
youtu.be/r9Altvw30Sg?si=UHh9RRW8ax...
Can we win it twice in the same prompt or thrice?
yes it is possible. each prize will have a separated evaluation
Too complex to set up Alibaba Cloud .I am from India, my head was messed up some days ago wile setting it up, tried today as well got nothing done !!!!!!!!! 😥😥😥😥
Good luck
not for India ?
Hi @ullas0bito, Alibaba Cloud is not available in India but if you are able to find another way to access their service, we will honor your submission and still consider it for prizing.
How is it possible for @jess Lee?
This is amazing will attend the challenge
Good luck
Great
good luck to anyone