The next big thing after My Dream App, MacHeist is set to commence the first challenge today.

Welcome! If you’re reading this, you’ve been invited to what’s becoming the Mac shareware event of the year. MacHeist is an event for Mac users who are addicted to great software.

The event centers around the safe. Each week, you will undergo a heist, and on completion, receive a combo code to unlock the safe. The reward? Free, cool apps, and money off the final week’s bundle.

If you’d like to witness the chase, perhaps even help out with some clues, it starts with this TUAW post speculating on who Hubert is. (And from there, jumps through 12 sites with Hubert hidden in their pages.)

Fortunately I was one of the early users and received invites to pass along to lucky readers. What is required to receive one of these shiny MacHeist invites? Read on..

We’re going to play a little game. The first person to comment gets an invite if they pose a question for the next commenter. For the second commenter to receive an invite, he/she must answer the question correctly and then pose another question… Oh, and I have 5 invites. This is bound to get messy, but it’s the thought that counts .. right?