Crackdown Developers Sponsoring Dare To Be Digital

Crackdown developer Realtime Worlds has announced it will be sponsoring the UK student design competition Dare to be Digital, contributing both financially and with staff mentors and speakers for the contestants. Developed and organised by the University of Abertay Dundee, Dare to Be Digital pits teams of students from the UK, India and China against each other in a 10 week contest to develop a fully functional prototype of a new game idea, with the finalists judged by a panel of games industry experts, now including Realtime Worlds CEO and creative director David Jones. As part of the sponsorship, Realtime Worlds will also be creating "behind-the-scenes" features about the making of Crackdown to be shown at Dare ProtoPlay – an exhibition coming to the Edinburgh Interactive Festival that will be showing this year's entries. Dare to be Digital has also recently announced a partnership with The British Academy of Film and Television to offer the BAFTA Ones to Watch Award, a new award to be given to a winning Dare to be Digital team at BAFTA's October British Academy Video Games Awards. Said David Jones, "I am delighted to take that involvement and commitment to another level through this sponsorship and through becoming a Patron of Dare. We are employing 150 people at our Dundee office and would like to expand to near 200 by end of this year. Partnering with Dare will help attract more talent to our production hub in Dundee. We also have plans to work with Dare on our international expansion."