Pittco gamers recognize the vital role of educational institutions in teaching our future game developers the things they need in order to produce the next generation of popular video games. That’s why Pittco has chosen to sponsor the fifth annual Open Source Game Coding Competition this weekend, November 5-6, 2011 at the University of Pittsburgh.

Developer teams including at least one college student will compete to produce a video game in 24 hours of virtually non-stop coding action. Prizes are awarded to the first, second, and third place teams. Last year, the prizes were some great board games. In addition to other prizes awarded, Pittco will be giving 50% off admission to Iron Storm XIII to the first place team, 30% off to the second place team, and 20% off to the third place team. Anyone else in attendance will receive 10% off for signing up for the Pittco LAN party news mailing list.

Last year’s winning entry, ASCII ASCII Revolution, was developed by Jackie Kircher, Lindsey Bieda, and James Larkby-Lahet. Check out the video after the break to see this fun ASCII game in action.

If you’re interested in participating, head over to osgcc.org for more information or contact event organizer Dave Wilkinson directly via email (address on the site) or Twitter @davewilkinsonii.