BAFTA Ones To Watch nominees chosen at Dare Protoplay

The organisers of Dare ProtoPlay have announced this year’s finalists for the BAFTA Ones To Watch award, a prize that celebrates the most promising young games makers.

Dare ProtoPlay is an event that marks the end of Abertay University’s annual Dare To Be Digital competition, where student teams from around the world are challenged to build a working game within a couple of months. ProtoPlay is a festival in which all of the completed games are showcased to the public for the first time.

Based on these showings, the ProtoPlay judges have selected Bluedoor Games, Ludico and Team Rebound as this year’s winners, and this year’s finalists for the BAFTA award.

Bluedoor Games won with creative puzzle platformer Among the Stones, which sees players explore a mysterious island. Team Rebound’s Rebound is a multiplayer sci-fi dodgeball game.

Finally, Ludico’s winning entry Pentagrab is a 2D arcade game where up for four players compete for points by sacrificing strange items. It also picked up the Audience Award as the most popular game of this year’s ProtoPlay, as chosen by members of the public.

“The standard of the entries to Dare to be Digital this year was outstanding, giving the judges a particularly hard task in choosing the three winners,” said Abertay’s Professor Gregor White.“However, Among the Stones, Pentagrab and Rebound are excellent games and deserve their nominations for the BAFTA Ones to Watch Award.

“Dare to be Digital is an internationally renowned competition and this year’s competitors have come to Dundee from all around the globe; that all three winning games are from Scotland is testament to the high standard of games design education at our universities.”

“We expect that all of this year’s Dare to be Digital contestants, wherever they have joined us in Dundee from, will go on to make even more creative, captivating and inspiring games as they take their first steps into the industry.”