The Scottish student game development competition, Dare to be Digital, has secured significant funding from Channel 4. The partnership will facilitate a new international competition, named 4Dare, involving small groups of students from around the world working on ten-week projects. There'll also be a ProtoPlay exhibition, which will run as part of the Edinburgh Interactive Festival, showing off the work of the competitors. Introducing the 4Dare concept, Channel 4's Chief Executive Andy Duncan said:
Channel 4 is driven by innovation, talent and risk-taking and all of these are inherent in the Dare to be Digital competition. Video game design and production requires a fusion of art and science and 4Dare will bring together the top young talent from regional centres vital to the future of digital broadcasting in this area.
This is good news, I think, for both grassroots indie development and for the UK games industry. Dare to be Digital finalists produce consistently excellent, interesting work and with more centres opening throughout the UK, there's more chance for burgeoning developers to get involved.
More info here.
