The DevSta challenge has commenced (as of 3 hours ago).

DevSta is a competition for developers to build something from scratch in under 200 hours (and 8 minutes to be precise).

Here’s the brief (PDF) that was announced this afternoon:

The Challenge
We live in an era of constant re-invention – where what we’ve created in the past inspires what’s happening now – or what’s to come. For this reason – your DevSta {Challenge 2008} is to explore the link between “old school” and “new cool”! This could be as simple as re-inventing something “old” in a new way – or perhaps taking
something new, and tackling it in an “old” way. To get into the “old school/new cool” mindset, think Buddy Knavery and games like Pacman, Lemmings and Space Invaders. Your entry needs to be technically innovative, relevant to the theme and must meet the following criteria

Yes folks, if you look after a development team at work then you may want to check a little closer and see what they’re really working on!

As usual with Microsoft competitions these days there’s a shitload of prizes.