Dare to be Digital, the UK’s premier computer games design competition for students, received an early Christmas present today when its promoters Abertay University confirmed that it will increase its financial support for 2008.
The decision means that Dare to be Digital’s full-time organising team can now begin to source external contributions to a total budget of £1 million over the next two years.
The organisers are planning to almost double the number of student teams in 2008, and also increase the number of host centres across the UK and possibly overseas as well.
In 2007, a total of 12 teams containing 60 students competed in Dare to be Digital, at host centres in Dundee, Belfast and Guildford.
Abertay University also announced today that Dare ProtoPlay, the highly successful public showcase included for the first in the 2007 competition, will be repeated next year. The organising team are already looking for potential venues for an expanded ProtoPlay in 2008.
Paul Durrant, Dare to be Digital Director, highlighted three factors which have encouraged the organisers to think bigger and better for 2008: “Dare to be Digital teamed with up the British Academy of Film and Television Arts for the first time this year with the winners eligible for the BAFTA Ones to Watch Award.
“Secondly, indie documentary production company Wantok were commissioned by BBC Radio 4 to track the competition from start to finish. Their documentary, Game Academy, will be broadcast in prime morning slots in December.
“Finally, Dare to be Digital is also featured as a best practice example in the UKTI / BERR / TIGA report Playing for Keeps.
“These exciting achievements show that Dare to be Digital has come of age and is now attracting serious attention from throughout the industry and beyond. There has also been a very high level of interest in all of the teams from 2007 and in the IP they created, with several commercial negotiations underway.
“In addition, key hires of individual contestants have also been made by Free Radical, Codemasters, Rare, Microsoft China, Disney, Rockstar North, Realtime Worlds, Google London, TT Games, Her Majesty's Government Communications Centre, Natural Motion, Stainless Games, and FXLabs (India). One team has even set up its own new company – Threshold Interactive.
“That so many individuals are winning exciting jobs in the industry within days or weeks of the end of the competition speaks volumes for the calibre of the students and the value that employers place on the Dare experience.
“We now working on transferring the model into other sectors of the creative industries, and we are poised to scale up not only the contest itself but also Dare ProtoPlay into the definitive independent IP and talent showcase to consumers and industry as we reach critical mass over the next couple of years.”