Durrant: There's more to come from Dare

Paul Durrant, director of Dare to be Digital, has told GamesIndustry.biz that while he's delighted the competition has gathered so much respect across the industry, there is still plenty of work to be done to get it to where he wants it to be.

"We've had teams from many different countries take part - teams from Canada, Japan, individuals from Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, India... we've been slowly building that," he said of Dare's international reach.

"What we haven't managed to significantly do yet is to open up the European opportunity, and that's something we need to address."

And in regard to the impact the competition has on the CVs of participating students, he was again pleased, but keen to improve further.

"It certainly does have an impact - that's great, but I think we've some way to go to attract even more talented applicants to the programme, and particularly there are some general computer arts and sciences programmes where people aren't necessarily so focused on games as a career that we'd like to attract, to come and experience being part of a team too," he said.

"So while we've had some success, we've still got quite a way to go before being looked at as always having the cream of the crop taking part in Dare."

When asked about Dare's reputation, and what it's done to help it's originating university - Abertay in Dundee - Durrant was keen to point out the importance of the Skillset accreditation.

"There's no doubt that the recognition around the Skillset accreditation - and the paucity of Skillset-accredited courses - and the fact that we're the only university that has the arts and programming courses accredited, those things have been extremely positive for Abertay," he said.

"But they're the result of a long, hard slog, and we see ourselves only as a little way down the road yet because we've got to do quite a lot more to do what the industry wants - and there are some pretty tough challenges skills-wise ahead."

The finalists for this year's Dare to be Digital competition are set to be announced shortly, and GamesIndustry.biz will be profiling them in due course.