Drawing thousands of games enthusiasts every year, Dare ProtoPlay, which celebrates innovation in games and takes place between 13-15 August at venue 150 at Edinburgh International Conference Centre, is Scotland's biggest free video gaming consumer event.
The 15 games have been designed by some of the leading young games designers from around the world as part of the 10 week Dare to be Digital competition.
Over the past 10 years Dare has produced some of the most exciting young talent to emerge from the academic sector and attracts support from some of the world’s biggest names in entertainment development. Sponsorship comes from heavyweights such as Turner Broadcasting, Intel, Sony, Wacom and NCR.
Dare to be Digital is organised and run by the University of Abertay Dundee and judged by some of the leading names in computer games development. The international competition attracts students from across the globe to take part in a 10-week challenge in an attempt to come up with the next big game. 75 students had 10 weeks to complete their prototypes at Abertay’s Dare hothouse, before the ProtoPlay showcase at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Elaine Russell, Dare to be Digital project manager, explains: “Dare ProtoPlay gives the public the unique opportunity to play cutting-edge games developed by young developers who could go on to produce some of world’s leading computer games in a few years time. Visitors to the event will also get the chance to test out new games from some of the biggest names in the industry now, such as Adult Swim by Turner Broadcasting, Realtime Worlds’ APB and Kinect Sports by Microsoft.
“Dare to be Digital offers future game stars the chance to experience the hot-house environment of commercial games development, and to involve industry in the design and delivery of courses. For this reason, students around the world see it as an exciting challenge and the computer games industry views it as a hotbed of new creative talent.”
The games unveiled at the Dare ProtoPlay showcase will be on a wide range of platforms, including iPad, PSP Go, Android Phone, Windows 7 phone, Wii, Xbox and PCs. Visitors can play and vote for their favourite games at the event.
The competition is also backed by BAFTA, with the three finalists entering the ‘Ones to Watch’ category at the annual GAME British Academy Video Games Awards.