Dare to be Digital 2009

12th October 2009

The video games produced for this year’s Dare to be Digital, the UK's premier computer games design competition hosted by the University of Abertay Dundee, are now available to download free online.

This, of course, includes the three winning games Colour Coded by Pixel Pirates, Quick As Thieves by Gentlemen of Fortune and Shrunk by The Butterflyers which are now the sole finalists for the BAFTA Ones to Watch Award, as announced at Dare ProtoPlay at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

There are a variety of platform and arcade style games, each with it's own dazzling graphics, inventive characters and unique settings including: alien planets, troublesome farmlands, a lost bee colony, 3D puzzles, and a die hard rock fan on a mission to rescue the world from pop music.

Games created during previous Dare to be Digital competitions have gone on to be developed for the commercial market such as Coda Chain and ‘VegeMe’ for the i-phone which was previewed at Dare ProtoPlay this year.

14 teams of five students spent 10 weeks at the Dare Development Hothouse’ at the University of Abertay Dundee where they had access to top of the range equipment provided by an illustrious list of sponsors in addition to receiving mentoring from some of the top names in the computer games industry. This year the teams came from as far as China, India, Norway and Canada, as well as the UK and Ireland.

As well as being invited to provide game ideas during the start of the competition and being invited to judge the games at Dare ProtoPlay, members of the public were able to follow the teams’ progress online via blog entries and video diaries.

Download the games now directly from the Dare website at www.daretobedigital.com

Ends

Attached image shows winning Dare 09 game 'Shrunk'

NOTES FOR EDITORS

Dare to be Digital 09 – Sponsors

Dare to be Digital 2009 was sponsored by many of the world’s leading technology and media companies and organisations including: Intel, Turner Broadcasting, Autodesk, Adobe, amBX, NCR, Wacom, The Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise Tayside, Dundee City Council, The Digital Hub Dublin, The Department of Education and Science International Section, Belfast City Council, Invest Northern Ireland

Dare to be Digital 09 - Develop Accord

Blackrock Studio, Blitz Games Studios, BBC Scotland, Cohort Studios, Denki, Ninja Theory, Rare, Realtime Worlds, Rockstar North, SEGA and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) all joined the ‘Developer Accord’, to provide mentoring support for this year’s Dare to be Digital teams.