That Game Studio crowned BAFTA Ones to Watch

The careers of five young Swedish and Scottish developers were given one of the best starts imaginable last night, together picking up the BAFTA Ones to Watch Award.

The student quintet, named That Game Studio, picked up the prestigious honour for their debut project, Twang.

That Game Studio’s difficult journey to the prize began in February last year when the Dare to Be Digital game design contest started looking for possible contestants. Now, some thirteen long months later, after extended periods of hard work, the group stands with one of the most prestigious awards in British game development.

"We are extremely amazed that we won the award. We can barely believe it,” the group said in a statement.

“It’s like a kick-start right into the industry, a confirmation that we’re doing something right."

The group is made up four students at Skovde University in Sweden (Jocce Marklund, Annette Nielsen, Linus Nordgren and Marcus Heder) and Thomas Finlay from Abertay University.

The Swedish students’ stay in the UK was supported by the Scottish Government.

Much of the Dare to Be Digital takes place at Abertay University in Dundee – an institution widely praised as one of the best the UK has to offer for game development.

Dr Louis Natanson, the university’s Academic Director of the Institute of Arts, Media and Computer Games, said the winning students “have a very bright future ahead of them”.

“The standard we expect each year at Dare to be Digital is incredibly high – the student teams that come to Abertay University to build their games are among the most promising anywhere in the world,” he added.

“Previous Dare winners have gone on to jobs with the world’s leading computer games companies, including Rockstar, Sony and many, many others. We are absolutely sure that this year’s winners will follow in those trail-blazing footsteps.”

That Game Studio’s own Develop blog can be found here