Dare with Bamboo

For immediate release: Monday 3 May 2010

Abertay University’s Dare to be Digital is expanding its range again this year with the launch of a brand-new competition in partnership with leading tablet maker Wacom.

The 2010 Dare to be Digital contest attracted more than 100 entries by the closing date last month. Now, Wacom has chosen Dare to be Digital as its partner to run the first ever “Dare with Bamboo” - a compact version of Dare featuring Wacom’s innovative Bamboo range of interactive tablets.

Dare is inviting game design students to create “Bamboo Mini” games for Wacom Bamboo pen and touch tablets. “Bamboo Minis” are casual games or applications that highlight Bamboo’s unique technology.

As well as a big cash prize, the competition is offering student games developers a unique chance to get their work showcased in front of industry experts and, above all, have their game published to Wacom users worldwide.

Young adults who are not already part of a team that has submitted an entry to Dare to be Digital 2010 will be able to enter a game or application less than 3MB in size into “Dare with Bamboo”, using Wacom’s proprietary “Bamboo Dock” software development kit.

The “Bamboo Dock” SDK allows the game designer to exploit the huge variety of control methods possible via the digital pressure-sensitive pen, or direct through the fingers using a wide range of gestures and movements.

Would-be competitors in “Dare with Bamboo” must register their interest by 30 May at www.daretobedigital.com <http://www.daretobedigital.com> . Finished entries, which should be designed with general computer users in mind (as opposed to hardcore gamers), must be submitted by 11 July, and will be judged by experts from Wacom and the games industry.

Five games will be chosen as winners, and showcased at the prestigious Dare Protoplay event during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August, as well as being published on the Bamboo Dock platform where hundreds of thousands of Wacom users worldwide will be able to try them out. The winner of the £1,000 grand prize will be announced at Dare Protoplay.

Peter Kurstjens, New Business Creation Manager at Wacom Europe GmbH, says: “Dare to be Digital is a highly renowned competition. That is why we chose it for our first Bamboo Mini competition. We want to leverage the creativity of game design students to show the power of pen and multi-touch input for games. Besides a great prize, the students get a chance to publish their game to the Wacom user community worldwide through the Bamboo Dock platform. It is a chance that you do not get so often.

Gregor White, Enterprise Director of Abertay’s Institute for Arts, Media and Computer Games, said: “We are very excited to be working with Wacom to offer this exciting new addition to the Dare to be Digital experience for 2010. The Bamboo tablet encourages new and highly innovative approaches to interaction design that will stretch games creativity into wholly new areas, very much in keeping with the Dare ethos. We are looking forward to seeing the entries for ‘Dare with Bamboo’.”

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NOTES FOR EDITORS

About Wacom

Wacom Europe GmbH is a subsidiary of Wacom Company, Ltd. (Tokyo Stock Exchange 6727). Founded in 1983, Wacom is a global company based in Japan with subsidiaries and affiliate offices around the world to support marketing and distribution in over 150 countries. Wacom’s vision to bring people and technology closer together through natural interface technologies has made it the world’s leading manufacturer of pen tablets, interactive pen displays, and digital interface solutions. The advanced technology of Wacom’s intuitive input devices has been used to create some of the most exciting digital art, films, special effects, fashion and designs around the world and provides business and home users with their leading interface technology to express their personality. Millions of customers are using its cordless, battery-free, pressure-sensitive pen technology.

The company also offers its products as OEM solutions to leading manufacturers serving incremental markets. Wacom’s interface technology, called Wacom Feel IT Technologies, is also offered as an integrated solution to strategic partners. Most Tablet PC manufacturers count on the advanced features and reliability of the brand to deliver a superior user interface experience.

Press contact:

Wacom Europe GmbH

Michael Domke

Tel.: +49-2151-3614-304

email: press@wacom.eu

About Dare to be Digital

Dare to be Digital is organised and run by Abertay University, with sponsorship from Turner Broadcasting, Intel, Wacom, NCR, the Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise and Dundee City Council. Technology support is provided by Adobe, Autodesk, Codesion, Crytek, Emergent, Hansoft and Sony. Teams of student programmers and artists compete in a 10-week intensive 'hot-house' development environment over the summer vacation, building fully-functioning prototypes for assessment by industry judges and a public vote at Dare ProtoPlay, scheduled for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August. The three winning teams from Dare to be Digital each year become the sole nominees for the BAFTA “Ones to Watch” Award, and this year’s Dare and BAFTA winning team also won a BAFTA Scotland New Talent Award.

Media enquiries: Kevin Coe, Abertay University Communications Centre, +44 7850 904 110, k.coe@abertay.ac.uk