Brightspark to enlighten Abertay's start-ups

Videogame sales and marketing agency Brightspark Entertainment has been enlisted by the University of Abertay Dundee to provide mentoring to two start-up game developers which emerged from the Dare to be Digital contest.

Hiding Buffalo, whose online adventure title Gumshoe won the Dare to be Digital competition in 2002, and Socomo, whose mobile phone football management title was a finalist in 2003, are the two companies in question.

Both companies are former participants in Abertay's own Embreonix incubator programme, and are hoping to commercialise and bring their products to market this year.

Brightstar, which has previously worked with companies including the Bitmap Brothers, Koch Media and Oxygen Interactive, will be helping the teams to prepare their products for presentations to customers, secure meetings with key people and guide them through the negotiation process for a publishing deal.

"This is a great opportunity for Brightspark to help these talented young people to put their foot on the first rung of the business ladder," commented Brightspark managing director Philip Wright. "I have seen both projects and they are very innovative."