Dare to be Digital
What is Dare?
Dare to be Digital is an internationally renowned video games competition for talented computer science and art students who want to design their own original video game. Students cluster into teams of 5 (usually a mix of artists, programmers and audio), and get to build their dream game. If the game is good enough, the team goes to Scotland, receiving funding and mentor support from industry professionals in all venues of game design to help make it happen.
How does it relate to the MSc (CGT) program at Algoma University?
What used to be only open to the U.K. is now also open to students in the Master of Science (Computer Games Technology) program at Algoma University in North America. As a part of the MSc (Computer Games Technology) program, you can, in teams, submit your game to the competition and perhaps go to Scotland to develop it just like our local team; Log 2 N did with their game called Flux.
What are the benefits of being a part of Dare?
While in Europe, you will be expected to showcase your game at public events, including the Dare ProtoPlay event which runs alongside the Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival. You will likely have hundreds of visitors so be prepared! In 2007 they had 2500 attendees! This is an excellent opportunity for you to mix and mingle with industry professionals who are headhunting. You will also gain inside knowledge about the industry, learn from the pro's, meet people who are interested in your game as a commercial product, and meet other teams and play their games. As an MSc (CGT) student, you can expect to have a shoe-in when applying for jobs to studios that are a part of the competition as well as those that are not. It is said Dare is "the closest thing there is to actual game development work" in the industry.
One of the fourteen teams for Dare 2009 consists of Algoma University's MSc Computer Games Technology students Eric Stock, Sunny Atwal, and Pedro Melendez, as well as our Bachelor of Computer Science student Chris Iaconis. A team from Algoma University also participated in Dare 2007 and won several awards for their innovative game called Flux.
The game that the Canadian students built for Dare 2009 is entitled Rock Rebellion. The single-player game sees players taking control of protagonist Izzy, a die-hard rock and roll fan. Izzy's quest is to free some familiar hard-rock and heavy metal icons from the evil clutches of a cabal of lightly-satirized pop stars, including Brittany Spheres and the Backstrit Bouys.
Players can use an arsenal of weapons against brainwashed pop fans in the game, including buzz-saw guitar leads, rapid-fire drumstick strikes and glass-shattering vocals. When it is completed, Rock Rebellion will be playable with the accessories from the wildly popular Rock Band series. Rock Rebellion was designed using the Gamebryo LightSpeed development engine by Emergent Game Technologies.
Check out their game called Rock Rebellion in its final stages of development: