Dare to be Digital NI

Some of my mates who are in Ballyfermot Games Design HND1 are planning to enter, but apart from that I don’t know.

You would expect more entrants this year with the new courses that have been set up. I presume that literature about the competition was sent to the various colleges, and even if none was surely the people who run the course would know about it…..

I’d say your right, the fact there are more courses will probably lead to most teams being formed from within classes. Whereas last year maybe people had to scout around a bit more for willing team members.

Very cool. Could be interesting to check out.

Any resident Northerners making the trip? Aphra? DarkSaviour? Etc??

Certainly, Aphra.

Only have one morning class on Fridays so I’ll be able to head right over after college.

Glad to see some attention in Belfast. Maybe some chaps will see that it’s not so bad. :)

I blame it the lack of activity on the new website…. ;)
Had a look at the irish site and there isn’t a forum there this year ?? The main scottish site has a forum but only has 9 people signed up so far.

9?

Thats pretty bad…..

Very cool. Could be interesting to check out.

Any resident Northerners making the trip? Aphra? DarkSaviour? Etc?? [/quote:08892efff4]

some Phookas might be in attendance

Don’t know the process would be that far in in Scotland yet, so they would only be starting to think about it now. Don’t know if Irish people are using it or not, because its not on the .ie site. I didn’t notice one there when I did a quick look about. If it is there and hidden away somewhere, thats just bad design.

I’ll be at it… hope to see some of you there

I’ll be at it… hope to see some of you there [/quote:6d713d3f45]
Only noticed the Calander bit last night but just had a look at the News section. Don’t be so modest, giving a speech is a little more than just being there! ;)

some Phookas might be in attendance [/quote:6d713d3f45]
Very cool, see you lads there.

I wonder exactly how many people will be turning up. I wouldn’t expect much but the W5 isn’t open for any random event.

wee Belfast Kicks Off Dare 2005

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/press_release.php?aid=6461

Hang on a second…..

Talented students from across Northern Ireland, hoping to enter the highly competitive games sector…..[/quote:f046246f06]

“This is the first time a team from Belfast will participate in Dare to Be Digital”[/quote:f046246f06]

??

City counsellors, politicians and news readers should be banned from talking about videogames or the videogames industry.

I remember one Sky News anchor kept referring to games as “these videos”, “should we allow our children to play videos”, “what ratings are on these videos” et cetera……

Politicians blag a lot, but blagging doesn’t work as well with topics about high technology. ;)

(Beware of typical Belfast-centric attitude)
Let’s be honest here. Belfast IS Northern Ireland. Everywhere else is just unnecessary countryside! No offence, Aphra. :D

I’ve got my registration complete so I’ll definitely be there. Looking forward to seeing a few familiar faces and some new ones. :)

What University’s / College’s are eligible to enter ?
Its says unis and art colleges. In Scotland its restricted to Unis, but they opened it up in the south because of lack of unis…

Just dragged myself out of bed from my afternoon nap and I’m not really sure of all the rules so I’m really just hazarding a guess…

Is it possible that they’ll split it up into different campuses? Say for example – University of Ulster Belfast and University of Ulster Jordanstown. (Though the latter is just outside the city) The only further and higher education colleges are all from BIFHE. Again that could be split, though I’d imagine they’d be hard pressed to find any support outside of the multimedia department – if even there.

EDIT: Ah wait, this is the whole of Northern Ireland, isn’t it? Again, just work up so excuse the mistake. I’d say then that NWIFHE could easily bring a team. I know that there’s also an further and higher institute in Bangor and Lisburn. So if they do accept colleges then there’ll have more than two teams. Though I don’t know how many team they want. Guess we’ll find out on Friday. :)

Sheesh!

Go back to bed Ronny!!

bloody student bum ;)

Yes sir, code monkey! ;)

As a matter of fact I have my sleep patterns down to a fine art. There’s a good reason why the Spanish have siestas. Not just laziness. :)

Yes, its to do with the heat and you don’t live there, so get up you lazy bum!

just got back from this event, was really good despite the lack of students attending!! cant wait to get the team up and running and generate some game concepts. this competition is so amazing, its unbelievable.

I found it to be a great event, today. The turnout was very low, though I can’t pretend I’m surprised considering Belfast isn’t Northern Ireland’s game development hotbed.. yet. The speakers were great and gave us all a lot of useful information about the competition and the industry in general. A few good chats were had after about art, university courses, programming and beer. Yes, as you can gather from that last one, Mal was there!

Yes, its to do with the heat and you don’t live there, so get up you lazy bum! [/quote:a27b2a300f]
Well Damian.. according to a little birdy I talked to at Dare you’re a “wonderful gentleman” and a “really pleasant person” so I won’t try to slag you off. ;)

just got back from this event, was really good despite the lack of students attending!! cant wait to get the team up and running and generate some game concepts. this competition is so amazing, its unbelievable.[/quote:a27b2a300f]
Hey Richard, could you possibly private message me your contact details so I can chat with you about the compo. Cheers.

If anyone has any questions about it I’ll try to answer them for you.

I assume that was Jackie…she loves me :)
As long as she didn’t show you the video, its all okay :)

also, if any of you do qualify….you should get to know her, she got me my first job.

It was definitely a cool event, if a little under-attended.

As Ronny mentioned, we had a good chat after the event.

Jane even mentioned that the event is a hotbed of romance for programmers meeting cute artists ( Omen, dare to comment? ;) ), so if there are any potential game coders out there who think a female is a type of adaptor connection, join forces with Ronnys team and lets see a few entries from Norn Irelan this year.

Mal

Yep, Dare seems to be a good place for guys to meet chicks. I can already see Mal packing his lunchbox to head back to college!

Sadly it looks like I may not be able to enter this year. I had no intention of entering before Friday anyway so it’s not a big shock. Trouble is I seem to have an exam or two as I’m supposed to be in my first week at Dundee. Not sure how I could get myself through that one. Perhaps waiting until next year when I’m more skilled will be better anyway.. if there still is a team from Ulster. :(

I’m not sure about the game dev courses throughout Northern Ireland but it’s possible they’ll still be finishing up college. Though I’d say the organisers have looked over that already.

after attending the event on friday, i am now more eager to enter this competition. we are trying to get a team together as we speak in my class in the nwifhe ICE course. id definitly say there will be a team entering next year, ill be looking to enter it next year also, if not this year! if there is anybody on these forums who previously entered this event, and could give me some pointers or tips towards getting a good team together or help entering this competition, i would greatly appreciate it.

Jane even mentioned that the event is a hotbed of romance for programmers meeting cute artists ( Omen, dare to comment? ), [/quote:328c53a668]

What?? As team lead you have power to abuse!
Jane, who’s Jane? Not Jane Dewar from EA is it ?

r_mc_gowan or anyone else, I won the event 2 years ago. If you want advice, send me a PM, preferably with your email address ( due to the 1000 character limit ) and I’ll see if I can help. If you want to know what we did, check out the Dare site and find DemonLore.

What?? As team lead you have power to abuse![/quote:9c3f3d5e30]

Ah jaysus, you can just see Damo working at EA , can’t ya….

Jane, who’s Jane? Not Jane Dewar from EA is it ?[/quote:165b536583]
Ex-EA. ;)

If you want advice, send me a PM, preferably with your email address ( due to the 1000 character limit ) [/quote:b956f61409]

Us gd.ie members can never think of anything that would require more than 83 charac

:confused:

Ex-EA.[/quote:e64da0142d]

Ronny, how’s she involved now then? She working for Abertay ??
:confused:

I think Jane is consulting for Abertay on the Dare project.

Mal

I got the impression she was a big-wig at ea.
Think she was in charge of the student-scholarship thing they did.

Hang on a second….I resent Jane speaking about that, she knows nothing about goings on from that year. And chances are she doesn’t even know who I am, apart from wathcing the video.
Bah!

It has “Consultant” “Dare to be Digital International” on her business card. So I’m not entirely sure if she’s directly involved with Abertay.

I think you’re right too, Damian. She mentioned something about the EA uni program.

I applied to that, was told by someone unofficially that I’d made it through the first few rounds and then I heard nothing more about it and it sounded like it was just getting bumped further and further back…maybe it got discontinued.
EA never contacted me about it. Typical.

anybody else on these forums thinking of getting a team together for this?

hey ronny, il be sending you a e-mail either tomorrow evening with an update and some info+questions.
howd your exam go anyways?!?

Looking forward to it. I’ve been hounding people to get their thoughts on it. Will keep doing so. ;)

The exam went absolutely fantastic, Richard! It was a gift and I can’t believe both questions were on 1917 – Provisional Government and the Bolshevik rise to power. That’s my specialitity so I couldn’t be happier. Finally got revenge for Nam… (Long story)

Aah yes Damian… the video. I’ve heard about that. Has to be a copy somewhere.

Video? oooh I think I’ll be wanting to see that

Nowhere you’ll get to see :)

Damian, you should really post up the video here for us to see. Rumours spread fast and many wild things are being said about you. Of course most of them aren’t true but who’s to say otherwise until we see the video??

It has “Consultant” “Dare to be Digital International” on her business card. So I’m not entirely sure if she’s directly involved with Abertay.[/quote:04d73351cc] I believe she’s left EA HR and is now contracting with Abertay

From what I’ve heard five teams plan to enter from Northern Ireland. I know that Robert Hegarty of NWIFHE is fielding a team. Apparently third years from the computer science course at Queen’s are also going to enter, though I haven’t heard confirmation. No idea where the other teams are coming from! :)

Our class is aiming to enter at least one team, max two teams. We are now in the process of finishing off concept and presentation. Dont worry, we will be ready!! Any news from any teams from the south??

not sure how many teams have entered the NI heat yet, but a date for the interviewing of the teams has been set in early May

Closing date for entries: Monday 18th April 2005

jordanstown might have a entry (i’m apart of the povisional team )and either Coleraine or Magee too (i always get them mixed up)

Closing date for entries: Monday 18th April 2005

jordanstown might have a entry (i’m apart of the povisional team )and either Coleraine or Magee too (i always get them mixed up) [/quote:9f22efe503]
I presume it’s Magee. They have a multimedia course that has a few students on it that are interested in game dev. Then again, Coleraine has a computer technology course that is becoming increasingly focused towards game technology.

Why not both, I say? :)

The more the better!! Is there any previous dare team members registered to this site??

Hello r_mc_gowan, I entered Dare 2 years ago, before it moved to Ireland and we won the competition.
If you or anyone else would like some info or advice, feel free to contact me.