They have emerged from a selection process with over 70 universities world wide, whittled down to members from 16 different universities with games being developed for iPad, iPhone, Kinnect on X box 360, PC and Windows Phone 7.

Entries were judged by Dare’s Developer Accord: Blitz Games Studios, Cobra, Codemasters, Crytek UK, Jagex Games Studio, Outplay Entertainment, Rare, Rockstar North, Ruffian Games and Sony Computer Entertainment.

The teams are sourced from City University London, ICAT (Bangalore), Institute Of Technology Carlow, IT University of Copenhagen, Liverpool Screen School (Liverpool John Moores University), Newcastle University, Northumbria University, Norwich University, College of the Arts, Peking University, Sheffield Hallam University, University of Abertay Dundee, University of Central Lancashire, University of Huddersfield, University of Ulster University of Wales, Newport, University of the West of Scotland.

Dr Louis Natanson, Academic director of the Institute for Arts, Media and Computer Games at Abertay University, added: “The standard of applicants is extremely high this year. It takes a right game idea, the right team and the right pitch to convince the industry judges.
 
“The finalists for Dare to be Digital 2011 now have a fantastic opportunity to start their career in computer games development.
 
“We also like to thank all the games industry judges who have spent their valuable time assessing the applications and will mentor the teams when they arrive at Abertay University in June.”

After nine weeks of intense competition, the finished games will go on show to the public and the games industry at the free Dare ProtoPlay computer games festival.