In the second of our Guest Blog features, Jenny Duncan from Dare to Be Digital explains what her organisation can offer to the games industry.
For all those of you who complain about the lack of originality and the proliferation of licenced titles in the video games industry, the Dare to be Digital competition, produces a refreshing fountain of talent. Although one of the awards for Dare is for ‘Most Commercial Potential’, equal awards are also given for ‘Greatest Innovation and Creativity’ and ‘Best Use of Technology’. Commercial potential is only in there as the obvious measure of success but is there a better way new talent can be recognised? Are these the right categories for a competition dedicated to showcasing the talented young video game designers of the future? The Dare organising team would love to know what you think.
With the existing talent pool increasingly attracted to work in tax efficient locations such as Canada, continuously refreshing up and coming talent in the UK will be of increasing importance. The opportunity presented by online user generated content distribution that began with XNA/Xbox live also opens the door for small development teams that grow out of Dare once again.
Dare to be Digital supports the creation of video game prototypes by talented, young developers in order to showcase their talent and prepare them for working in industry and also to stimulate new IP creation.
Teams of art and science students are filtered through a rigorous industry selection process to work together to produce a prototype game in just 10 weeks in a near to real world development environment. At the end of the 10 weeks, the teams compete for prizes by pitching their prototype to a panel of judges from the video games business.
This year – Dare has increased the number of teams and also added 2 additional locations around the UK. Whilst Dare has grown with help from the industry, both financially and with in-kind support. These new regions will continue to flourish with funding from economic development agencies working alongside the universities and industry in the region.
This year during the final week we are bringing Dare to the masses, at an event to take place in Edinburgh on the 12th – 14th August called Dare ProtoPlay 2007. It aims to establish itself as a major event in the games industry calendar, particularly from the perspective of public outreach and involvement in the competition. It is anticipated that 15 or so playable prototypes from the Dare teams will be on display and to play and that there will be other events such as careers and education related events that will be of interest to the public. From an educational perspective there will be a significant opportunity to show game prototypes in a deconstructed form that will allow visitors to see the complex mathematics and physics that lies behind the games and also follow concept art to 3D graphics.
Hopefully it will go someway to removing the smoke and mirrors of how the games development works and engage the public in the professionalism and high level of talent needed to produce game blockbusters. Also the wide variety of games and genres on show will help our visitors understand that games are not all first person shooters and that girls play games too.
We hope to see you there!
Following university, Jenny spent over seven years in marketing roles in three London based posts within the leisure and retail sectors; Forte Hotels, P&O Princess Cruises and Harrods before returning to Dundee in 2003 to work in the family business.
In 2005, she joined the University of Abertay’s School of Computing and Creative Technologies. Whilst she was there, she was involved in organising amongst other things the Women in Games conference when it was hosted at Abertay that year.
Last year, she joined the Dare to be Digital team as one of the project co-ordinators as the Dare competition expanded. This year, Hosting Centres are running in Scotland, Ireland and the South East.
