[Digital Today reporter Ho-jung Lee] Nexon said on April 27 it is recruiting participants for "Mekathon," a hackathon to develop new games using its intellectual property (IP) "MapleStory."

The event will be held as an assignment to plan and develop creative games using resources from Nexon's sandbox platform "MapleStory World." It was set up to invigorate the IP ecosystem and discover new games.

Applications will be accepted through May 11. It is open to adults aged 19 and older, and will be split into a first round for teams that include undergraduate students, graduate students and those expected to graduate, and a second round for the general public. Up to 160 people will be selected.

Participants will be provided team-building, basic platform training, job training and mentoring during the development period. The program also includes judging by current practitioners and a feedback process.

Total prizes amount to 20 million won. In each round, it will award 5.5 million won for the grand prize, 3 million won for the top excellence award and 1.5 million won for the excellence award. Completed games can be officially launched through "MapleStory World."

In particular, results from this "Mekathon" can be submitted to the "MapleStory Global Development Contest," a global developer discovery program. Recruitment for the contest starts on May 28.

Nexon plans to select 30 teams for the contest based on its evaluation of IP interpretation, completeness and sustainability. It plans to invest 1.8 billion won in total and provide grants ranging from a minimum of 50 million won to a maximum of 90 million won per team.