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Record number of entries for Dare To Be Digital

70 universities and 30 nations take part in student dev contest

The University of Abertay Dundee's Dare To be Digital development competition has attracted 108 entries, breaking its previous records.

70 universities from 13 countries entered, and 15 teams will be selected to take part, with the Scottish government helping Chinese, Indian and Finnish teams with £85,700 in support funds.

"Dare to be Digital is a fantastic showcase of the talent, infrastructure and cutting-edge skills that Scotland, and Dundee in particular, has to offer in this fast-growing and competitive market. It also provides an excellent platform for students to knowledge and develop their expertise whilst benefiting from mentoring from video games experts here in Scotland," said Minister for Culture and External Affairs Fiona Hyslop.

"Scottish Government funding has already enabled the international scope of this project to expand into India, China and Nordic countries, further enhancing Scotland's digital reputation overseas. I am delighted to confirm that this support will continue in 2012, our Year of Creative Scotland."

Dare To Be Digital starts on June 11, with three winning teams announced at the Dare ProtoPlay festival, which starts August 10.

"The talent that Dare attracts is really quite phenomenal, and our industry contacts like Rockstar North and Sony regularly hire competitors straight from the contest. It is a genuinely life-changing experience for the students who beat the very tough competition to get in," said Abertay's Professor Louis Natanson. "And the students get so much from putting their games on show to the public at Scotland's biggest computer games festival, Dare ProtoPlay, in Dundee in August. It's an incredible experience for them, seeing their games being played by thousands of people of all ages."

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Rachel Weber

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Rachel Weber has been with GamesIndustry since 2011 and specialises in news-writing and investigative journalism. She has more than five years of consumer experience, having previously worked for Future Publishing in the UK.