The next generation of computer games stars was unveiled in Dundee on 14thAugust as the three winning teams from Dare
to be Digital were announced.
Digital
Knights, Evolved
Ape and Swallowtail
will now compete for the exclusive BAFTA ‘Ones to Watch’ award
– which only the Dare to be Digital winners are eligible to compete for. The
BAFTA winner will be unveiled in a glittering ceremony in London early in 2012.
FunBox
won the ‘Visual Adrenaline’ award, sponsored by Intel, for the most visually
appealing and best performance prototype game making intelligent use of Intel®
integrated Graphics. Ape-y
Eyes won the Team’s Choice Award and Furnace
Games won the Dare ProtoPlay Audience Award.
Coming home to Dundee for the first time, the Dare ProtoPlay festival saw
record-breaking numbers of visitors – around 9,000 people playing and enjoying
games, three times the number who visited the festival in Edinburgh last year.
Digital Knights team leader Roman Graebsch said: “We never, ever thought
we’d be here. The team got together for the fun of it, so it’s just amazing to
be nominated for a BAFTA. It’s just such a great feeling to see people enjoying
what you’ve created.””
Evolved Ape team leader Malath Abbas said: “I’m absolutely ecstatic and
really proud of the final product and the whole team. All the hard, hard work
has paid off, and personally it’s made me realise I have the ability as an
artist and as a leader to deliver.””
Swallowtail team leader Sophia George said: “We’re so happy to win –
the team worked incredibly hard. I came into industry because I wanted to see
more women working in games – and in turn creating more games for women. It is
such an incredible privilege to win.””
Digital Knights are Agne Gediminskaite, Roman Graebsch, Josep B Martinez and
Petr Papez from the IT University of Copenhagen and Amr Din from Abertay
University. Their game Joust! is a fun Kinect title where you jump up and down,
and use your arm as a lance to joust.
Evolved Ape are Stuart Brown, Joe Hurst, Daniel Scholes and Mat Stevenson from
the University of Central Lancashire and Malath Abbas from Liverpool Screen
School. Their game Dreamweaver for the PC is a puzzle-platformer which quickly
develops into a nightmare – where your friendly animal companion starts to
attack you…
Swallowtail are Rosie Ball, Kristian Francis and Sophia George from the Norwich
University College of the Arts and Mark Bamford and Callum Goold from Abertay
University. Their iPad game Tick Tock Toys needs you to clear a toy box to help
your clockwork robot reach its goal.
Noirin Carmody, awards judge and Commercial Director at Revolution Software, said:
“I am very encouraged by the number of young women involved in the making
of games, which undoubtedly will help to create games that appeal to a wider
audience.””
Kieran Connell, awards judge and Development Lead at Microsoft Studios, said:
“I’ve been incredibly impressed with the technical achievements of all the
teams this year, but particularly those that have managed to get to grips with
Kinect – creating natural and enjoyable game mechanics with such a new piece of
hardware in such a short space of time is phenomenal.””
Richard Leinfellner, awards judge and Chief Executive of Babel Media, said: “Once
again the quality of entries was very high – and this year the diversity of
devices used by the teams was striking. Dare to be Digital is really starting
to reflect the wide range of audiences that today’s developers can reach
through games.””
Dr Louis Natanson, who leads computer games education at Abertay University, said:
“Dare to be Digital is a life-changing opportunity for aspiring young
computer game developers.
“The standard of games gets better and better every year, and it’s been a
real joy to see thousands of people enjoy playing the games in Dundee this
weekend. It is a real vote of confidence in the Dundee industry and in the game
developers of the future.””
He added: “To have to build a brand new game in just nine weeks is a
massive challenge, and every single competitor deserves to be immensely proud
of what they have achieved.
“They arrived at Abertay University nine short weeks ago as promising
students – they leave us as very promising young professionals. We will watch
their careers with great interest.””
Applications from over 70 universities worldwide were whittled down to just 15
teams to compete in Dare to be Digital 2011.
Hosted and run by the University of Abertay Dundee, Dare to be Digital brings
in games industry professionals to hand-pick and mentor the teams. Many
competitors go on to receive job offers from these world-leading companies.
For more information, please visit http://www.daretobedigital.com