Dare to be Digital
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Dare to be Digital is a video games design competition targeted for university students and it was created by University of Abertay Dundee, Scotland in 1999.
In this contest, teams of 5-6 university undergraduates or fresh graduates work together in a microcosm of a games development company under tight deadline (10 weeks) to finish a functional game prototype. The main objective is to help students gain real life working experience. With mentoring support from games companies, a link is built between the students and the potential employers.
To enter the Dare to be Digital competition, teams need to meet the 3 main criteria set out by the organiser: be creative, got market potential and be technology smart.
[edit] History
In 1999, an idea was developed within University of Abertay Dundee, who was one of the global pioneers to offer academic courses in video games development, to help students get jobs easily. It was hoping to encourage students form their business as well.
Since it is encouraging enterpreneurship, it attracts the attention of local government. Scottish Enterprise Tayside and Dundee City Council have been supporters of the development of the competition since its beginning. Local technology companies like NCR Corporation has also supported it.
From 2000, it was open to all university students across Scotland. Support from Electronic Arts also helped the growth of the competition.
Different development models were tested with involvement from international teams who came from Japan, Canada, China, India, Malaysia (where a trial host centre model was carried out) etc.
The model was proven to be so successful that it is now rolled out to all of the UK with international participation. Dare to be Digital winners also form the sole nominees of a BAFTA award called Ones To Watch. Ragnarawk was the first game to gain this BAFTA Ones to Watch award last year.
With more industry and government support, the contest started to have parallel host centres across the UK from 2007. Apart from the Dundee centre, 2 more host centres were set up in Belfast and Electronic Arts office in Guildford respectively.
