Dr Stephen Brennan, chief strategy officer with the Digital Hub Development Agency, with students at the launch of Dare to be Digital earlier this year. Photo by Maxwell Photography
The winners of the Irish leg of Dare to be Digital have been announced and five students from Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) will go on to represent Ireland at the international level next month.
Dare to Be Digital is an international computer game design competition organised and hosted by Scotland’s University of Abertay Dundee. The Digital Hub Development Agency co-ordinated the Irish leg of the competition, with support from the North-South Cooperation Unit at the Department of Education and Skills.
Simon McDonnell, Seán Gilleece, Nicola Disley, Ryan McCabe and Dmitrij Starcenko – all students at DkIT – formed the team Stone Hammer Games and their concept for the game Two Remaining Souls won the judges over.
The co-op action defence game is played by two players using iPhones. Though players are playing in the same world, they see it from completely different angles, with one player taking on a third-person action game and the other playing a tower defence game. Each player will be able to see the other’s actions in real-time.
Team Ireland
The Stone Hammer Games team will now have the opportunity to work on a prototype of Two Remaining Souls alongside top-class computer developers this summer. They will travel to Scotland early next month and spend nine weeks in Dundee developing and fine-tuning the game under the guidance of mentors from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Sega Europe, Lift London, Ruffian Games and Outplay Entertainment.
Games developed by the international teams will be exhibited at the ProtoPlay festival in Dundee for the general public and industry experts to try out and vote for their favourites. The three highest-scoring games will receive stg£2,500 in prize money and will compete for a BAFTA Ones to Watch Award at the BAFTA Video Games Awards.
