Dare ProtoPlay is held as the finale of Abertay University’s Dare to be Digital game design competition, which this year sees 16 teams of students building games at their home universities.
The students then travel to Dundee to show their games to the public, with three winning teams picked as the exclusive nominees for the BAFTA Ones to Watch Award, a prize which can only be won by entering Dare to be Digital.
Last year’s Dare ProtoPlay festival attracted over 13,000 people across four days.
Professor Gregor White, Head of the School of Arts, Media and Computer Games at Abertay University, said: “Dare ProtoPlay is an incredibly exciting event for families, games enthusiasts, aspiring designers and games industry professionals. The festival keeps getting bigger year after year and the whole team at Abertay University is incredibly proud of how the festival has developed into a major international event, attracting teams from all over the world for the chance of a BAFTA Ones to Watch Award.”
As well as games created by the Dare to be Digital contestants and independent game developers, there are also a range of family friendly events taking place at the Dare ProtoPlay festival.
The Cardboard Challenge invites people of all ages to come and build their own video game arcade from cardboard boxes, Killer Queen Arcade Field Game is a computer game similar to ‘capture the flag’ played in the real world, and Johann Sebastian Joust is a game with no graphics which uses motion controllers linked to the speed of a piece of classical music.
Professor White added: “Inspiring young people is one very important aspect of Dare ProtoPlay, as we want children and parents to see that games are about art, creativity and design. The festival will show traditional digital games, but we’ve also got the Cardboard Challenge and Killer Queen Arcade Field Game which take game design ideas out into the real world. We’re looking forward to another busy four days as thousands of people come to Dundee to play games, have fun and even be inspired to try making their own games.”
The BAFTA Ones to Watch winners will be announced at the British Academy Games Awards early in 2016.
Dare ProtoPlay runs from Thursday 13 to Sunday 16 August in Dundee’s Caird Hall and City Square. The festival is free and suitable for all ages. There is also the opportunity for children aged 8-14 to play, judge and score the Dare games as junior judges. Junior judging tickets are £10 and available from https://www.daretobedigital.com/284_Dare-ProtoPlay-2015.html
For more information, please visit www.dareprotoplay.com