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Welcome to DARE
The Dare Academy games design competition enables students to gain significant industry exposure and international experience.
Dare Academy is a games design competition open to Abertay University students in teams of up to 8. It takes place over 4 weeks in the summer...
27/03/24 (Wednesday) — Applications Open
31/05/24 (Friday) — Applications Close at 5pm
04/06/24 (Tuesday) — Teams Invited to Interview
13/06/24 (Thursday) — Judging/Pitch
14/06/24 (Friday) — Finalists Announced
01/07/24 (Monday) — Hot-Housing Starts
25/07/24 (Thursday) — Hot-Housing Industry Networking Event
02/08/24 (Friday) — Hot-Housing Ends
TBC — EGX Showcase
Dare Academy is Abertay University's annual video games design competition that starts on campus and ends at the EGX games expo in London. During the competition, teams of undergraduate students develop a game prototype over an intensive summer of industry-supported hot-housing.
This video follows Dare Academy's six finalist 2023 teams as they travel from Dundee to EGX in London to demonstrate their finished games to industry insiders and attendees.
We appreciate that you may have other commitments or due to financial constraints, may have to return home over the summer so it is possible for some members of a team to participate remotely in the competition. It is necessary, however, for teams to be represented in person at all hot housing events. The schedule for hot housing will be made available with plenty of time to allow participants to plan attendance.
Participants can work part-time and participate in Dare Academy. We would like you to attend as much of the hot housing as possible but appreciate that work commitments may mean some events are missed. All teams should have representation at all events.
If you were registered as a student on an Abertay Undergraduate degree programme as of the 1st April 2024, you can participate in DARE Academy.
If you were registered as a student on Abertay Undergraduate modules of study as of the 1st April 2024, you can participate in DARE Academy.
Yes. So long as the game has potential and a clear plan for its development during DARE Academy, it can be pitched for the competition.
Teams are invited to present their concept to a panel of industry and academic judges. They will have 15 minutes to pitch their ideas and then the panel will ask a series of questions for 15 minutes. There will also be an opportunity for teams to ask questions of the panel. The process is somewhat formal and will be hosted in person, on-site at Abertay University. It is appreciated if the whole team attend the interviews in person unless in exceptional circumstances.
Hot housing makes use of the standard PCs in labs within the university. Teams will only be able to access the versions of software currently available on university computers. Additional software and drivers can be installed as requested by teams, but these should be free to use.
The university will provide standard computers as are available within university labs. Additional equipment such as mobile devices for testing, can be provided if they are within the university’s current stock. Teams can purchase additional equipment using the budget provided to teams via DARE Academy.
