'Dare to be Digital' Competition Expands to Scandinavia

"Dare to be Digital," a student-oriented game development competition organized by Abertay University in Dundee, Scotland, has opened this year's event to teams from Scandinavia for the first time in the contest's history. Abertay University raised £85,700 in "Dare to be Digital" funding from the Scottish government, the British Council, and the Norwegian School of Information Technology, allowing undergraduate students from China, India, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden to participate in the worldwide competition. "Dare to be Digital" invites contest applications from teams of four students in each participating region. Each selected team will be joined by one Scottish student during the course of the competition. The ten-week event takes place over the summer, with teams of student programmers, artists, and designers competing to produce working prototypes of their game ideas. Entries will be judged by a panel of games industry experts, and will be voted on by members of the public at an exhibition held at the upcoming Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Three winning teams will be nominated for the BAFTA "Ones to Watch" Award next year. "The international scope of this project has already built up a network of relationships in India and China," said Culture Minister Fiona Hyslop. "Extending the reach of the project into continental Europe will further enhance Scotland’s digital reputation amongst overseas universities. It also provides an excellent platform for students to share knowledge as well as receiving mentoring from video games experts in Scotland."