Games industry in a good place

Abertay University’s Dr Dayna Galloway says the future is bright and Dundee now plays on the digital design world stage

It’s an exciting year for Abertay and Dundee, but then every year seems to be better than the last in our city of design.

As a university, we are celebrating 20 Years of Games – that’s an incredible two decades since Abertay launched the world’s first degrees in computer games. When our first, fresh-faced games students joined us in 1997, the mobile apps that now dominate our lives were years away and the first Grand Theft Auto a month from release.

To link in with our celebrations, I’ve been delighted to take part in Dundee’s first Games Design Awards – part of the city-wide THIS Festival which includes an Abertay-hosted E-sports tournament, a massive four-day games exhibition at West Ward Works and Arcadia, a series of talks from industry experts organised by our friends at Biome Collective.

As a member of the judging panel, what struck me most during the judging process was the sheer quality of the games, and also the internationality of the submissions.

Milkmaid of the Milky Way by Norwegian studio designer Machineboy is playfully resonant of classic LucasArts point and click adventure games. It has quirky puzzles, an even quirkier story, and a particular highlight is that the game is entirely in rhyme.

Another title – The Low Road by XGen from Canada – is a visually slick espionage adventure game full of ‘70s nostalgia with highly stylised 2D characters and backgrounds. The opening telephone conversation is exceptionally well designed.

South African entry Semblance, by Nyamakop, is an innovative twist on the platformer genre where you can physically manipulate the environment and deform the player character to progress through a visually welcoming but hazardous world.

The fact these entries are coming in from all over the world shows just how far Dundee has come as a city renowned for digital design. And what’s great is we are no longer surprised by this.

To me, Dundee is not the plucky young upstart anymore but a city there on merit, mixing it up with the global cultural heavyweights and packing a mighty punch when it comes to fostering creativity, nurturing forward thinking and embracing the unknown.

It’s also truly great to also see Dundee represented strongly in the Design Awards, with Outplay’s Castle Creeps, Red’s Kingdom by Cobra Mobile and Fragmental by Ruffian Games all deservingly nominated.

It’s equally pleasing to see three games made by recent Abertay graduates on the shortlist. Skye – by Abertay-based Puny Astronaut – is nominated in multiple categories. A highly intuitive, relaxed puzzle experience, the art, animation, music and mechanics all work together to not only soothe and entertain, but also make you feel smart when your exploration and experimentation rewards you with the solutions to unlock new areas and puzzles.

Honeypot Espionage by Abertay’s Pocket Sized Hands has already received huge attention and this team has just returned from representing the UK in the Microsoft Imagine Cup Finals in Seattle, USA. The virtual reality stealth game asks the player to set traps and shoot opponents who you are only visible to while you move.

Finally, Causeway by Yarn Spinner was developed in the Global Game Jam at the university in January. A short experimental game, it presents players with a series of life choices and the path you choose reflects these decisions as the world evolves around you.

All of the awards submissions show how far games production has come since the ‘90s – and with Dundee’s reputation as global design hub growing stronger every year, the future of the city’s games design industry looks to be in safe hands.

From top: The Pocket Sized Hands team of Alan Yeats, Gary McCartan, Rory Thomson, Wan Daniel, Corry Young, Bryan Henderson and David Gray who competed in Seattle; images taken from Fragmental, which was nominated in the Games Design Awards.