UKIE sponsors Dare To Be Digital

Trade body UKIE (UK Interactive Entertainment) has announced that it is to become a sponsor of this year's Dare to be Digital competition, and will also provide a judge for the high profile student contest.

Run by the University of Abertay Dundee, Dare to be Digital has become one of the world's leading video game design contests. As a result of UKIE's involvement commercial manager Sam Collins will also act as one of the judge's for this year's competition.

Dare to be Digital has become increasingly high profile on the world stage, with the three finalists also competing each year for the BAFTA One to Watch award. The most recent competition was televised as part of a three-part documentary on Channel 4.

The Dare to be Digital model of practical education in a real-world environment has also been strongly backed by the Livingstone-Hope governmental review, which UKIE has been heavily involved in implementing.

"UKIE exists to support the wider interactive entertainment industry in the UK. We need to make sure that the UK's video game developers have a supply of quality people, with the right skills to be the next generation of creative talent," said chairman Andy Payne. "Dare to be Digital has a proven track record of uncovering high quality talent and UKIE is proud to be sponsoring the competition this year and is very much looking forward to working with the team at Abertay to uncover the video games stars of tomorrow."