ReiHEN Vita Homebrew contest announcement, $700 in cash prizes!

It was less than 2 years ago that the FuHEN Homebrew contest for PS vita brought us awesome games such as VitaHot and Purified, and ports such as The World Ends with you or Late Shift. Today, Vita scene veteran and youtuber Zealous Chuck announced a new homebrew contest, ReiHEN.

The PS Vita has nothing to prove when it comes to its capability to run ports or original homebrew games. The Homebrew development environment is very mature and easy to work with. It remains one of the best times to develop for this console.

If you’re a developer for the PS Vita (or have been thinking of dipping your toes into the magic world of Homebrew Development), you’ll have until October 7th this year to submit your entry. The prizes currently include $700 in cash, and the number could grow.

ReiHEN PS Vita homebrew starting on July 21st, mark the date!

Developers get ready: a new PS Vita Homebrew contest has just launched! ReiHEN (that’s the name) has started, and you have until October 7th to send your entries. Technically, submissions do not open until July 21st, but of course nothing prevents you from starting to work on your project already. If you have what it takes to create homebrew games, or utility/plugins, this contest is for you. Your entry can be created using your own engine from scratch, or existing SDKs such as Unity or GameMaker. There’s also a category for porting an existing game.

Specifically, ReiHEN has 3 categories with prize pools: Original game, utility, and ports.

ReiHEN is being driven by Zealous Chuck and 2Old4Gaming, two veterans of the Vita homebrew scene. Zealous Chuck has been producing Vita Homebrew content on Youtube for 5 years now. 2Old4Gaming also has a youtube channel dedicated to the Vita since 2014, but is also well known for his crowdfunded books on console homebrew and gaming. With these two folks at the helm, I know the contest will run smoothly!

a few of the entries from 2021’s KyuHEN contest

From the organizers:

ReiHEN  靈編  stands for spiritual change.  PS Vita in 2025  is fully grown up. The tools  used for Homebrew Development  are at an all-time high. PS Vita in 2025 doesn’t need to prove anything to anybody. It has already done it.  It transformed into legacy handheld phenomenon and this Homebrew Contest is meant to celebrate its uniqueness alongside bringing a bit of rewards to the hard working developers. Viva la Vita !!!

ReiHEN PS Vita homebrew contest Categories

No matter what your skills/interests are, if you’re a homebrew dev there should be a category for you. The ReiHEN contest has specifically 3 categories:

• Original Game – Create an original game, either from scratch or with an engine of your choice, e.g. GameMaker or Unity…
• Utility – Create a utility homebrew or a plugin.
• Port – Port an application or a game from another system.

ReiHEN PS Vita homebrew contest: $700 in cash prizes, and growing

There is a total of $700 in cash prizes for now, split among the 3 categories (check the contest website for specific details). More prizes might come if other people want to sponsor the contest (their site provides a link to their ko-fi page where people who want to donate can do so).

Disclaimer on accountability: Large homebrew contests with big cash prizes like this one are always a bit tricky to organize. I am not one of the organizers (although I’m happy to say I’m one of the sponsors of the cash pool), but Zealous Chuck and 2Old4Gaming are both veterans of the Vita scene with a lot of credibility.

ReiHEN: how to get started

Although the contest isn’t accepting entries just yet (this will start mi-july), you can already get started on your end. So get your favorite text/code editor ready, then go check their website for the full rules and the judging process. Good luck to everyone!

Source: 2 Old 4 Gaming