Amazon Alexa Skills Contest

The challenge

Hi everyone! We're giving away $100 gift cards to the top 50 Skills submitted to the contest and the UK Skills store. First come first served, based on quality and completeness.

We are happy to announce our newest Amazon Alexa contest for the UK!

Create a skill that gives users their local rubbish collection days, or their local sports centre opening times and timetables. If you have an idea for something that should be powered by voice, build the skill to make it happen.

This contest is open for all developers from around the world to create and post finished skills to the UK Alexa Skill Store on Amazon.co.uk only.

Use the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) to easily build capabilities, tap the self-service APIs, documentation, templates and code samples to get developers on a rapid road to publishing Skills.

Timeline:

• Project Submissions Open: May 9th, 2017

• Project Submissions Close: June 30th, 2017

• Winners Announced: July 7th, 2017

Here’s how to participate in the contest:

• Create a free Hackster account

• Register to participate in the contest on this page

• Create an Amazon Developer account using the same email you used for your Hackster account

• Design, build, and submit your Amazon Alexa skill

• Submit your project on this contest page

Project submissions should include:

• A link to your published Amazon Alexa skill (If applicable)

• Story and high-quality images

• Clear project documentation including VUI diagram

• BoM (materials used)

• Source code

Don't have an Echo?

The Alexa Skill Testing Tool (EchoSim.io) by iQuarius Media is browser-based interface to Alexa, the voice service that powers Amazon Echo. Echosim.io is intended to allow developers who are working with the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) to test skills in development.

To use the Alexa Skill Testing Tool

1. Navigate to https://Echosim.io

2. Log in with your Amazon account.

3. Click and hold the microphone button and speak a command as you would on the Echo. For example, say, “Alexa, what's the weather today?”

4. When you let go of the button, EchoSim processes and responds to your voice command.

5. To speak your next command, simply click and hold the microphone button again.

6. Some features of the hardware Amazon Echo, such as streaming music and far-field voice recognition, will not function with this tool.

Technical Resources:

Getting started with the Alexa Skills Kit

Account linking

Helpful Projects on Hackster:

Alexa Hurricane Center uses Weather Underground's API to give you info on hurricanes and tropical storms.

Opening Bell uses Markit's API to give you current stock prices.

Daily Cutiemals uses Flickr's API to send you pictures of cute animals each day.

Amazon will select winners based on the following criteria:

Most Creative Skill for UK Alexa Users

• Creativity (20 points)

• Use of Voice User Interface (VUI) best practices (10 points)

• Story/Instruction – Show how you created your project, including images, screenshots, and/or video (20 Points)

• Project Documentation including VUI diagram (10 Points)

• Code – Include working code with helpful comments (10 Points)

• Submitted Alexa Skill (20 Points) (Skill must be submitted between the contest start and end dates. Read more about skill submission criteria.)

Most Useful Skill for UK Alexa Users

• Usefulness (20 points)

• Use of Voice User Interface (VUI) best practices (10 points)

• Story/Instruction – Show how you created your project, including images, screenshots, and/or video (20 Points)

• Project Documentation including VUI diagram (10 Points)

• Code – Include working code with helpful comments (10 Points)

• Submitted Alexa Skill (20 Points) (Skill must be submitted between the contest start and end dates. Read more about skill submission criteria.)

Prizes

1st Place

4 winners

Amazon Echo, Amazon Echo Dot, Amazon Tap

-

$320 value

2nd Place

8 winners

Amazon Echo

-

$180 value

3rd Place

16 winners

Amazon Fire TV

-

$90 value