Dare to be Digital 2009

Four undergraduate students at the Image College of Arts, Animation and Technology (ICAT), Chennai, India, have been selected to participate in the prestigious international “Dare to be Digital” contest at the University of Abertay Dundee, Scotland in June 2009. The four young men — Sriram Ganesh (Team leader and Programmer ), Abhi Maruthu (Concept Artist), Sujan Sundareswaran (Game Designer) and Palanivel Rajan ( Programmer) — are all avid gaming enthusiasts and their group, Team “Noobeez”, was one of the three design teams short-listed nationally, and was eventually chosen as the Indian winner after they presented their game concept via video conferencing to judges in Scotland.

Dare to be Digital is an international video games development competition for extremely talented students at Universities and Colleges of Art conducted by the British Council and the University of Abertay Dundee, Scotland. Teams of 5 students, usually a mix of artists, programmers and audio, get together in a development hothouse for 10 weeks to develop a prototype video game, receiving daily support and weekly training sessions from industry specialists. This competition is very highly regarded in the Computer Games Industry.

The 4 students will stay in Scotland at the University of Abertay Dundee for 10 weeks and participate in Dare this summer, starting Monday 8th June and develop the prototype of their concept, with support and mentoring from industry experts, and then showcase their work at the ‘Dare ProtoPlay’ event to be held in August at Edinburgh, alongside 13 teams coming from UK, Irish Republic, Canada, Norway and China. The top three winners at Dare ProtoPlay not only have a chance to have their game picked up by gaming companies, but also to be nominated to win the prestigious BAFTA awards later in the year.

So what’s the game idea that has impressed the judges? Their concept is called ‘Color Scheme,’ which is a 3D platform ball game based on the elements of Color mixing. Says Abi “Our game is designed for kids in the age group of 9+ but we will make it such that gamers of any age would love to play it. We are working on a simple concept with high replayability and improved physics so as to make the game more interesting and challenging for the player”.

The four gaming enthusiasts are looking forward to a career in videogames, and are naturally thrilled about this opportunity. They give all the credit to their parents, saying, “They have given us their wholehearted support. This has paid off!”

The team can be reached at wingrider888@gmail.com

Press Contact:

Sriram Ganesh

B 10, Reserve Bank Staff College Campus,359, Anna Salai, Teynampet,CHENNAI – 600 018 INDIA

wingrider888@gmail.com

Mobile: 9791018566

http://www.daretobedigital.com/

Photo caption:

Left- Abhi Maruthu, Top- Sriram Ganesh, Below- Sujan Sundareswaran, Right- Palanivel Rajan