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Game Competition: Calling All Gamers, Developers, Creatives..
To Whom It May Concern
Dare to be Digital – The Irish Dimension
The Digital Hub Development Agency together with Enterprise Ireland and the University of Abertay in Dundee, Scotland are launching Dare to be Digital Ireland on the 10th December 2003 in The Digital Depot, Dublin.
Dare to be Digital is a unique competition, which is open to Irish 3rd Level Students, Post Graduate, Recent Graduates and Further Education students, who are interested in developing a new innovative product in the games sector suitable for any platform. The winning project will be developed with the support of Enterprise Ireland and The Digital Hub over a 10-week period during the 2004 summer recess. Participating students will be paid for their work that will be based in The Digital Hub.
The competition has run successfully in Scotland for many years under the direction of the University of Abertay. They are keen to add an international dimension to the project and this year have invited Irish Colleges to participate in the project. The Irish dimension will be organised by The Digital Hub through the Liberties Learning Initiative.
On December 10, 2003, The Digital Hub is hosting a Dare to be Digital information event. Its focus will be on the organisation and delivery of Dare to be Digital. We are inviting Irish Colleges involved in preparing students for a career in Gaming and their students to join us at The Digital Depot, (at the rear of) 157 Thomas St, D8 at 09.30am where details of the competition will be announced. At this session you will have a first hand opportunity to speak to the competition organisers, and representatives from The Digital Hub and Enterprise Ireland. The event will conclude by 13.30 and a light lunch will be served.
Students must submit their projects in teams. The team must include at least one creative, one technical and one business management person. Because these skill sets may not all exist in the one educational institution, collaboration between colleges is encouraged.
This information day will allow colleges and students to interact and start putting together their teams, if necessary.
The competition will be formally launched in February 2004 to coincide with the Scottish launch. The winning team will be selected in May 2004 and will work on the project for 9 weeks in The Digital Hub. In September 2004, they will go to Scotland to represent Ireland in the final, which takes place in Abertay.
We would be delighted if relevant members of your faculty and students could attend the Dare to be Digital Information Event on the 10th December, 2003, and would appreciate any help you could give us in making this event a success in the hope that it will further your students’ education and careers.
If you require any further information about Dare to be Digital visit
<http://www.daretobedigital.com/>Contact us at exhibit@thedigitalhub.com <mailto:exhibit@thedigitalhub.com> and (01) 4806200.
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That schedule is a huge commitment for any undergraduates/postgraduates/graduates who may not know where they’ll be this time next month, let alone next year.
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…At this session you will have a first hand opportunity to speak to the competition organisers, and representatives from The Digital Hub and Enterprise Ireland…[/quote:ee662ce82a]
Plus past winners….
Yes, this is a huge undertaking, but if you are a student/recent graduate, chances are you no in possession of a demo that is good enough to get you into a games company. This is 10 weeks dedicated to doing just that within a team of five. Then you are go looking for your career.
This is an amazing opportunity.
I don’t know what Enterprise Ireland are going to be able to organise, but mentors from many games companies were constantly on hand to give advice whilest in Abertay,I’m assuming the same will apply.
Getting in to any industry is always made easier with knowing the right people. This is also a chance to do just that.ps
Where is the digital depot?….i’m supposed to be there -
the digital depot is part of the digital hub..head up Dame Street from Trinity college and keep going past Christ church as the street becomes Thomas Street..pass Vicar Street on your left and keep walking…the digital depot will be on the right near the old Guinness buildings..the digital depot is incubation space for new companies…
Aphra.
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This is an amazing opportunity.[/quote:31aca97438]
I don’t doubt that! I’m just trying to get my head around what will be necessary to take part, I’d imagine being outside Dublin won’t help..
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This is definitely a good opportunity for a number of groups of students to get together, create a relatively simple game design, and start developing a working prototype.
Delivering something that works, and is somewhat playable, is a skill that is very important when applying for a job in the industry, and it’s harder than it sounds, especially when working with a number of other people, and tying in resources, balancing who does what based on their skills, experience, free time, enthusiasm to the project etc. ( if your outside Dublin, and therefore have a smaller team to work with, that could turn out to be a blessing in disguise! Too many training chefs in the one kitchen could be a recipe for disaster, just ask Jamie Oliver! :P
As it’s a short timeline, I’d suggest sticking to a simple game ( there are loads of classic game concepts out there that could be “borrowed” :) and updated ).
Go to http://www.remakes.org and scan through some of the games that other people are updating, especially to 3D, and get inspiration from them… a lot of those developers are working for free, in their spare time, and so are in a similar situation to students taking part in Dare To Be Digital, albiet in a more relaxed, long term way.
Mal
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I can only speak as to what happened in Scotland last year, but here’s the story pretty quickly.
You’ll need to come up with a team of up to 5 people. No one wnet in with less cos, well, why would you? The Dare website has a section where you can advertise a team looking for indiviuals or an individual looking for a team.
You’ll need a game concept. You will be made to fill in a form with things such as main concept, gameplay, requirements, why you want ot part-take…ect ect.These entries will be looked over and the best selection of idea with a team with good skill set will get to the next stage.
Next stage you will be asked to present your idea to a panel of judges. Some from the games industry, others not, so its a hard sell. Showing you’ve got a cool game, but also that you are very marketable, innovative, ect ect, to people who know business in general or games in general.Finalists will go through from here. Your team will then have 10 weeks, you’d be based in the Digital Hub for that period, or somewhere similar I guess with all the other finalists.
For the team, you will need not only programmers. You WILL need artists. Depending on the game, I would advise a 3 and 2 approach, whichever is more intensive, the programming or the art. Our team was 4 programmers and 1 artist and we suffered badly from lack of artists, needing to contract some extra work.
Damian.
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What’s the organiser’s view on middleware packages such as RenderWare, are they supplied, or perhaps even allowed?
Eoin.
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do we have to register with anybody to go to the exhibition on dec 10th?
or can we just show up?I’ve just finished doing a postgrad course in programming in ucc,
i’d love to go n for something like this, but dont know many like minded people who would be eligible –
anybody interested? -
We are already building a team on this – we have a business management/AI programmer (me), a 3D graphics programmer and a gameplay programmer, we are short 2 good modellers / texture artists.
We have some innovative ideas which we feel have excellent potential and which cover little explored areas of game design, though we want to finalise a team before making any concrete decisions.
If there are any takers on the open slots (preferably though not necessarily Dublin based), PM or mail me.
Dave
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Is there any info on this anywhere on the web??
I’ve got a meeting on monday to find out whats happening, but I can’t find anything online about it at the moment…
damian
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Well I was just thinking there would be some info up about it on the web about who to contact if you want to go and a brief summary of what it is all about.
I’ve got the itinerary but what about everyone else?
Or is this an invitation only event?Damian.
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Places are limited but it is an open invite event afaik. They can be reserved by a quick mail to
daretobedigital@thedigitalhub.com
with details of number of people, College, course etc where applicable.
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FYI,
To those of you wondering if it would be worth it or not to take part it sounds as if a lot of industry interest has been generated since last year. I’m doing the Games Technology PGDIP\MSC in Abertay and according to our lecturers some big boys in the industry particularly EA will be keeping a close eye on matters. I’ve been told that last year 3 guys were given jobs by EA solely because of their work in Dare. I’d expect similar opportunities this year.
Damien.
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Yup, 2 of them were on my team.
I can’t say anymore but, yes, listen to him.
EA are not sponsors of the competition but they are on-board.*nods head knowingly*
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Just to say cheers for everyone coming along this morning! I found the experience enlightening and I was supposed to know what was happening ;)
Hope y’all liked the demo :)
If anyone has queries about the Dare experience, feel free to mail me and I will try to get back to you on it.
Mike, great to meet you! I’ll be in touch….
Aphra, sorry I didn’t get to chat…nearly missed the flight as it was!Damian.
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Damian..
well done yesterday and the demo was amazing. As you can see from the turnout…nearly 200 people.. there is a lot of interest in the competition in Ireland at the moment. Pity only one team can get selected this year but hopefully next year that will increase.
Just added my notes on the event to gamedev.ie under news.. see nav bar above..
Aphra.
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Yeah, shame its only one team, but I guess the Digital Hub/Enterprise Ireland have to test the water first…
Its quiet an undertaking to set the event up and from what I’ve heard, there will be several extra benefits this year over last year that Jackie is still finalising.
The competition is currently looking to spread globally so being one of the first international connection could really be an advantage in the future.
Thanks once again for praising the demo :) I was afraid people wouldn’t actually be able to see it on the big screen with the sky-lights where they were.
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