Tthe three winning teams are Digital Knights, Evolved Ape and Swallowtail who will now compete for the exclusive BAFTA ‘Ones to Watch’ award for which only the Dare to be Digital winners are eligible to compete for in London early in 2012. FunBox also won the ‘Visual Adrenaline’ award, sponsored by Intel, for the best graphics.
 
Coming home to Dundee for the first time, the Dare ProtoPlay festival saw record-breaking numbers of visitors – around 9,000 people playing and enjoying games, three times the number who visited the festival in Edinburgh last year.
 
Digital Knights team leader Roman Graebsch said: “We never, ever thought we’d be here. The team got together for the fun of it, so it’s just amazing to be nominated for a BAFTA. It’s just such a great feeling to see people enjoying what you’ve created.”
 
Evolved Ape team leader Malath Abbas said: “I’m absolutely ecstatic and really proud of the final product and the whole team. All the hard, hard work has paid off, and personally it’s made me realise I have the ability as an artist and as a leader to deliver.”
 
Swallowtail team leader Sophia George said: “We’re so happy to win – the team worked incredibly hard. I came into industry because I wanted to see more women working in games – and in turn creating more games for women. It is such an incredible privilege to win.”
 
Digital Knights are Agne Gediminskaite, Roman Graebsch, Josep B Martinez and Petr Papez from the IT University of Copenhagen and Amr Din from Abertay University. Their game Joust! is a fun Kinect title where you jump up and down, and use your arm as a lance to joust.
 
Evolved Ape are Stuart Brown, Joe Hurst, Daniel Scholes and Mat Stevenson from the University of Central Lancashire and Malath Abbas from Liverpool Screen School. Their game Dreamweaver for the PC is a puzzle-platformer which quickly develops into a nightmare – where your friendly animal companion starts to attack you…
 
Swallowtail are Rosie Ball, Kristian Francis and Sophia George from the Norwich University College of the Arts and Mark Bamford and Callum Goold from Abertay University. Their iPad game Tick Tock Toys needs you to clear a toy box to help your clockwork robot reach its goal.
 
Noirin Carmody, an awards judge and Commercial Director at Revolution Software, said: “I am very encouraged by the number of young women involved in the making of games, which undoubtedly will help to create games that appeal to a wider audience.”
 
Kieran Connell, awards judge and Development Lead at Microsoft Studios, said: “I’ve been incredibly impressed with the technical achievements of all the teams this year, but particularly those that have managed to get to grips with Kinect – creating natural and enjoyable game mechanics with such a new piece of hardware in such a short space of time is phenomenal.”
 
Richard Leinfellner, awards judge and Chief Executive of Babel Media, said: “Once again the quality of entries was very high – and this year the diversity of devices used by the teams was striking. Dare to be Digital is really starting to reflect the wide range of audiences that today’s developers can reach through games.”
 
Dr Louis Natanson, who leads computer games education at Abertay University, said: “Dare to be Digital is a life-changing opportunity for aspiring young computer game developers. The standard of games gets better and better every year, and it’s been a real joy to see thousands of people enjoy playing the games in Dundee this weekend. It is a real vote of confidence in the Dundee industry and in game developers of the future.”

FUNDING FOR NEW PROTOTYPE GAMES
 
IC Tomorrow, a Technology Strategy Board programme, is running a contest for the University of Abertay Dundee to provide small companies with up to £25,000 in funding for the development of prototypes that use games technology in new ways.Abertay University, has been playing a fundamental role in defining the requirements of the contest and will ultimately be solely responsible for funding the winners. Abertay University and IC tomorrow will also be reviewing all applications alongside content providers including EMI, Tate, IPC Media and National Geographic.
 
To enter the contest, applicants must provide a completed web submission form and a two minute pitch video available on YouTube. Applications must address one of the following specific challenge areas, supported by the content providers:
 
• The use of games technology in a non-gaming context – supported by IPC Media 
• Games ideas using digital creative content – supported by National Geographic
• Social games using existing communities – supported by Tate
• Music games application – supported by EMI
 
Successful applicants will offer solutions that will be applicable to a range of content providers and illustrate the greatest market potential.
 
Paul Durrant, director of business development at Abertay University, said: “Game technology is now being applied widely outside the traditional computer games industry offering fantastic opportunities for skilled graduates to work in a wide range of UK businesses. Working with IC tomorrow will help us connect with new talent who can develop innovative ways to use to creative content.”
 
Dr Nick Appleyard, head of digital at the Technology Strategy Board, added “We’re delighted to work alongside Abertay. The contest is a great way for the university to connect with new audiences and support UK entrepreneurs to develop and commercialise creative content.”
 
The deadline for stage one submissions is 12pm Thursday 15th September. Up to 12 selected finalists will be invited to take part in stage two and will be notified on Friday 23rd September. The winners will be announced mid October.
 
To learn more about the competition and enter  Join the Facebook fanpage at ICTomorrow