Winners of Abertay's Dare Academy announced at EGX 2018

Student team Thunder Lime has today (FRI) been crowned the winner of Abertay University's 2018 Dare Academy video games design competition.

A panel of industry judges ran the rule over the six finalists at the EGX games conference in Birmingham, with the winners scooping top prize of a funded trip to exhibit their game Kinoko at the massive Game Developers Conference in San Francisco this coming March.

The annual Dare Academy competition sees Abertay students devise, conceptualise and create games over a six-month period, with previous finalists enjoying both commercial success and critical acclaim.

All six of this year's teams have been given their own stalls at EGX - the UK's biggest games expo - and have received mentoring and support from professionals from leading games organisations throughout the contest, including Sony, Tag Games, YoYo Games and Ninja Kiwi.

Kinoko, which focuses on relaxation as players direct the title character in his mission to clear a beautiful forest of winter into the new spring season, stood out for the judges, who said all entries were of an extremely high standard.

Chris Trewartha from YoYo Games, who presented the award said: "All of the Dare Academy 2018 finalists have done well to get to this stage, with such a talented field emerging at the start of the competition.

"I'm delighted for Thunder Lime and wish them and their peers every success with taking their games to the next level."

Robert Henning, a former Abertay graduate and co-founder of Tag Games, added: "The range and depth of entries was particularly impressive this year and it's great to see such polished and considered games getting the exposure that they deserve."

Emelie Edholm of winning team Thunder Lime said: "We're absolutely delighted to win. Having worked next to all the teams over the last six months we know how tough it's been to just get here.

"We'd like to thank the mentors and our Dare Academy sponsors for all their support throughout the competition - it's been a brilliant experience."

Abertay University is ranked number one in Europe for games courses and was first in the world to offer games degrees.