Dare to be Digital Launches Sixth Awards

UK-based game development competition, Dare to be Digital, has launched the sixth year of its awards. The contest, hosted by Abertay University in Dundee, Scotland, pits student game designers against one another with a short deadline and industry advisors to produce the best game prototype in the course of the summer vacation. The event is expanding its global reach for 2006, as teams and individuals are expected to sign up not just from the UK but from North America and Asia as well. The selected teams will comprise four from Scotland, one from Northern Ireland, one from Ireland, and one from Canada. In addition, the Scottish Executive’s Fresh Talent initiative is funding seven places for Chinese and Indian students, each of whom will join one of the teams. The deadline for applications is April 17, following which seven teams will be selected to join the competition in Dundee for 10 weeks over the summer to develop a prototype video game, receiving daily support and weekly training sessions from industry specialists. At the end of the competition, the prototypes are judged by a panel of experts and prizes awarded to the teams at a special awards ceremony and talent showcase. “There are now more reasons than ever for teams to get together and enter Dare", commented Jackie McKenzie, Abertay University’s project manager for Dare to be Digital. “The track record of previous participants shows how very highly regarded it is within the computer games industry.” Team members from previous years have gone on to work for companies such as Lionhead, Electronic Arts, and Microsoft while local talent is also retained in Dundee by Real Time Worlds, Denki and others. McKenzie continued, “The ethos that runs throughout Dare is a winning formula: students start the competition with ideas and enthusiasm and come out of the competition confident and highly skilled with sought after experience under their belt.”