The National Heritage board is launching its first ever online gaming competition in a bid to engage web-savvy young people to cherish Singapore's heritage and culture.

Entitled Mission Darkstar - Heritage Gaming Redefined, the competition invites those interested in creating online games to submit their detailed proposals to the NHB in the first stage.

The top five proposals will $4000 in funds to execute their projects, and the top three teams who produce the best online games will stand to win a total of $13,500 worth of cash prizes.

Competitors will have to incorporate parts of Singapore's history and heritage into their game designs.

Games can come in the form of simple Flash animations or the much more complicated massively multiplayer online-RPG (MMORPG) games.

Winners will be judged by a panel along with votes from the public.