- Dare to be Digital
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Dare to be Digital is a video games design competition targeted at university students and recent graduates, started by University of Abertay Dundee, Scotland in 1999.
Teams (typically of 5 university undergraduates or fresh graduates) work together in a microcosm of a games development company under tight deadline (usually 10 weeks; 8 and 1/2 in the 2011 competition) to develop a functional game prototype over summer.
The main objective is to help students gain real life working experience in a studio environment. Mentoring support is provided by game industry professionals and University staff. Entrants are paid a basic salary and have accommodation and travel costs covered by the University.
Entrance to the competition is based upon each team's ability and the nature of the game concept. This is measured against three criteria: creativity, market potential, and use of technology.
These criteria are also used to decide the three winning teams, who go through to be nominated for the BAFTA Ones To Watch Award. Additional awards are given by sponsors, such as Adult Swim, Wacom and Intel, as well as an audience and team choice awards based on public and team votes respectively.
Contents
BAFTA Ones To Watch Award
The three winning teams of Dare to be Digital form the sole nominees of a BAFTA Ones To Watch Award as of 2007. Past winners include:
Dare ProtoPlay
After the competition ends the teams demonstrate their titles at Dare ProtoPlay, a free games festival formerly held at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival until 2010 and now at Caird Hall in Dundee. This is open to the general public.
ProtoPlay 2011 takes place on 12-14 August.
History
In 1999, an idea was developed within University of Abertay Dundee, who were one of the global pioneers in academic courses for video games development. In 2000, it was opened to all university students across Scotland.
Different development models were tested with involvement from international teams who came from Japan, Canada, China, India and Malaysia, where a trial host centre model was carried out.
With industry and government support, the contest opened parallel host centres across the UK as of 2007, in Belfast and Electronic Arts office in Guildford. It has since been opened up to all UK and Irish universities and selected international partners.
Support
Scottish Enterprise Tayside and Dundee City Council have been supporters of the development of the competition since its beginning, along with local technology companies like NCR Corporation and other software developers, such as Electronic Arts and Rockstar North.
Dare 2008
There were 17 teams taking part in Dare 2008, including Blue Skies (Abertay University Dundee) for their game ‘Origamee’, Ctrl_D (Peking University) for ‘VegeMe’ and DarkMatter Designs (Wolverhampton University) for ‘Boro-Toro’. These three teams were nominated for the BAFTA Ones To Watch Award 2009, with Boro-Toro winning.
Dare 2009
14 teams took part in 2009. The competition went more international with students coming from Canada, England, India, China, Northern Ireland, The Irish Republic, Norway, Scotland and Wales. The final winners were Colour-coded by PixelPirate[1], Quick as Thieves by Gentlemen of Fortune [2] and Shrunk by The Butterflyers[3].
The winner of the BAFTA Ones To Watch Award was The Butterflyers.
Dare 2010
Dare 2011
Dare 2011 runs from 13 June to 11 August, with ProtoPlay running from 12-14 August. Teams come from the UK, Ireland, India Denmark and China.
Team Game Format Country A Necessary Evil Carne Carne PC UK Ape-y Eyes Paper Quest Kinect UK Crispy Nugget Studios Galaxy Guardians Kinect UK Digital Hazards Shadow Light PC UK Digital Knights Joust it Out! Kinect Denmark Evolved Ape Dreamweaver PC UK Faraway Games Aida iPad UK Fatdog Games The Tale of Yog iPad UK FunBox Ants the Lost Memories PC India Furnace Games Scorcher Kinect UK Rebel Donut Plunder in the Jungle Windows Phone 7 UK Swallowtail Tick Tock Toys iPad UK Tea and Techno Full English Fusion Windows Phone 7 UK The Weather Factory The Balloonist iPad Ireland Yummy Tummy Who is the Lucky Ghost? iPhone China References
- ^ Dare to be Digital Website "Dare to be Digital teams unveiled for 2011 contest", May 30 2011, accessed June 7 2011.
External links
Categories:- Companies established in 1999
- Software companies of Scotland
- Video game companies of the United Kingdom
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