More Dare

Some headlines news on (my participation in) DareToBeDigital:

----- from Interactive Tayside News


Dare to be Digital has launched a brand new website giving details of the contest and information about past winners and entrants - www.daretobedigital.com

Jackie McKenzie, Abertay University's project manager for Dare to be Digital, said: "There are now more reasons than ever for teams to get together and enter Dare. The track record of previous participants shows how very highly regarded it is within the computer games industry.

"The ethos that runs throughout Dare is a winning formula: students start the competition with ideas and enthusiasm and come out of the competition confident and highly skilled with sought after experience under their belt.

"On top of that we have fantastic facilities and support available, and an unrivalled chance to make new friends and contacts within the industry, earn some money for working on your own ideas and maybe even win substantial prizes."

Dare to be Digital 2006 is funded by Abertay University and Dundee City Council, and sponsored by NCR, BBC Scotland, Belfast City Council, The Digital Hub, NESTA and the Scottish Executive.

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Our team and like-named Game Concept SPACEPORT is comprised of:

- David Sage: Team Lead
- Nicolas Koumentakis: Sound Designer
- Peter Bloomfield: Games Programmer
- Mark Burns: Games Programmer
- Willem van Heemstra: 2D/3D Graphics Modeller & Designer

Game Description

Spaceport: an exciting new hybrid simulation game, driven by people as much as profit.

Select your staff and choose your style of spaceport, then begin a new life orbiting the Earth where success relies on co-operation in this story-driven game.

Walk around inside, interacting with your crew and guests, and watch through internal and external CCTV. Extend your spaceport as your community grows.

Trade staff and parts online. Contend against a variety of antagonistic sources, including wily business competitors, disgruntled staff, fluctuating market reports and opinion-swaying radio news, in order to ensure financial and social survival.

Why are you applying?

Dare to be Digital is a unique opportunity and one that we all seek to get the most out of. Being selected to take part would give this team an unmissable chance to showcase our abilities and focus solely on what we want: to succeed in the games industry.

The nature of this project, in terms of timescale and finance, would enable us to produce our best work without any distraction, something we are all clamouring to do. Over and above this we are excited about the industry support available, having all benefited from this in more theoretical terms at university.

As a group we look forward to continuing to work as a team which, so far, has brought together five disparate individuals to work towards a shared goal. Whilst we have this goal, along with mutual ambition in common, we all have very different backgrounds and have already benefited from our different perspectives on the project.

Ultimately, we see Dare to be Digital as a fantastic opportunity to prove, both to ourselves and prospective employers, our abilities by producing a marketable prototype demo of Spaceport.

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Dare2BDigital starts 12th of June 2006 and is held 10 weeks in Dundee.