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Dare to be Digital

5107 / AT 5th August 2008

• Birmingham City University supports students to create computer games
  
  
• Teams are using state-of-the-art facilities at Birmingham’s Screen Media Lab
  
  
• Project forms part of an internationally renowned competition

Birmingham City University is supporting talented computer science and art students to design and create the next generation of computer games. 

Two teams of students have worked intensively seven days a week for the last eight weeks at the University’s Screen Media Lab facility, designing and building a fully functional video game prototype that will discern quality talent for the industry.  The project forms part of an internationally renowned competition called Dare to be Digital 2008. 

Highly influential mentors from Leamington-based Codemasters - creators of Colin McCrae Rally and Blitz games - along with Microsoft’s Leicestershire-based Rare studio have nurtured and spurred teams on, supporting them through the process of designing and creating the games. 

Adam Westwood is the programmer and project manager of the Wolverhampton Boro-Toro team.  He said: ““Dare gives you experience that is valued by the industry – the skills, the knowledge, the teamwork and gives you the edge to break into the industry.

”We’ve been in contact with some of the best mentors, learning the tricks of the trade from industry gurus, gaining insight into the games industry which University struggles to implement.”

With only a short time to go before the students compete against teams from around the country at the Dare Protoplay event in Edinburgh the pressure is on to complete their games to the highest standard possible.

Dark Matter Designs, a team from Wolverhampton University, is creating a game for the Nintendo Wii called Boro-Toro which is a side-scrolling platform puzzle game in which game-players control and manipulates objects in order to navigate their environment.   While The Contrived team, from Edinburgh and Napier University, are working on ‘Grav’, physics based puzzle game set in a retro-futuristic environment, where robots are enemies and surroundings stand between the player and death. 

The programmer and project manager of this team said: “This whole experience has given me insight into working within a team environment, at a fast pace that the industry of interactive games impels on you. The programme has encouraged us to work independently as well as collaboratively, helping us to generate a programme that asserts innovation and uniqueness.”

Both teams are making use of the cutting-edge facilities at Screen Media Lab (SML). Sara Harris, Director of SML, said: “This competition has encapsulated everything that SML stands for, innovation, creativity and enterprise.  It’s great to have the teams here; I can confidently say they are some of the hardest working students we’ve had in our building. Their commitment and professional has made them a pleasure to work with.”

Screen Media Lab has a record of working with national organisations on events and competitions. This autumn it will stage an innovative training programme for aspiring film-makers in collaboration with the EM Media and NESTA, the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts.

Dare to be Digital is the world’s leading games design competition for students, organised and promoted by the University of Abertay, Dundee.  About 100 teams applied to enter this year’s competition, from which 17 teams of five programmers and artists were selected to compete in five locations across Britain and Ireland. This is the first time the competition has been based in the West Midlands; a region recognised as a UK centre of excellence for the Computer Games industry with over 20% of the UK workforce based here.

The 2008 awards ceremony is scheduled to take place on 13th August at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. The judging criteria consist of innovation and creativity, marketing potential and use of technology.

The teams’ progress is updated on the Dare to be Digital website (www.daretobedigital.com) with videos, screenshots and blogs.  The general public have a chance to get involved as well with online voting on the games each team produces.  Just ahead of the awards ceremony, visitors to the Edinburgh Fringe and the Edinburgh Interactive Festival, as well as the general public, will get the chance to try out all the games for free in the special ‘Dare ProtoPlay’ showcase event at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (10th -12th August).

For further information please contact Birmingham City University Media Relations Office on 0121 331 6738, email press@bcu.ac.uk or out of hours on 07967 271 532.

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