Initially, I was interested with Immix because their video trailer showed off just how beautiful the game looked but gave away no clues as to what it was actually about.

A brief word with the development team unravelled the mystery of the game’s unique visuals. Immix is a 2D puzzle game which relies heavily on music. The main screen of the game is a basic graffiti mural with icons along the bottom allowing the player to select what type of puzzle to play. There are four levels to play through each taking a theme from the four elements - earth, wind, fire and water.

There are three types of puzzle based on either logic, rhythm and memory. Each puzzle unlocks different audio elements as well as additional interactive visuals that add themselves to the mural. By completing the puzzles you can build up dynamic, randomly generated music. By interacting with the unlocked visuals you can add to the music being generated. All this is controlled using a gesture-based system through a Wiimote.

Immix is a surprisingly easy game to play and it’s fine example of a how just intuitive the Wiimote control systems can be. This was definitely the most original game in the competition. The intuitive controls and the creative elements of the gameplay combine to make a very hypnotic experience that can be, as Sherpa Reynolds claim, just as enjoyable for those watching the game as it is for the player.

In addition to this the game is possibly one of the most malleable concepts around. The game was developed with graffiti style of artwork and rock musical elements but the developers say that it can be modified to accommodate plenty of other musical and artistic style combinations. It could be as easily applied to classical music and impressionistic artwork, for example, giving the gameplay the awesome potential to appeal to a large audience.

That’s it for Dare to be Digital this year but do watch out for the BAFTAs to see which one of Dare’s winners gets the gong.

The game is actually based on a very simple concept. A virus has been let loose on Manhattan and you are the FEMA director charged with stopping it before it kills all of the local population within the alloted time. With limited numbers police and biologists at your disposal you have to quarantine or evacuate buildings and set up road blocks in order to contain the virus. It is also possible to blow up a quarantined building to kill the infected people inside. This actually proved to be one of the most popular options.

You begin the game with a maximum score and it ticks down as more people contract the virus and die. Slow the spread of the virus and your score reduces more slowly. If your biologists manage to find ways to fight the virus your score even goes up. Basically your aim is to have the highest score by the end of the time limit.

The game has only been implemented for a small area and the graphics are very basic cel-shaded buildings with Darwinian stickmen wandering around amongst them. This actually added to the appeal of the game though. The only thing that let the game down was the slightly complicated control system. It was a bit difficult to get to grips with the game initially but with a bit of help I was blowing up small sections of Manhattan in no time.

The boys at Infection Vector have a mass of ideas for improving on the game and they plan to continue developing The Manhattan Strain well beyond the end of the competition. This is one game that we should hope to see on the shelves when the kinks have been worked out.

Next time I'll add my final pick of Dare for this year.

If you don't know, Dare is a collaboration between Channel 4 and the University of Abertay. It is a competition that brings the best young games developers together and gives them the resources and ten weeks to bring their concepts to life. The top three games win nominations for the One to Watch award at the videogame BAFTAs next March.

In the end, this year's winners were Dundee's own Blue Skies with their extremely charming platformer Origamee. The runners-up were Beijing's CTRL D with their game Vegeme and Wolverhampton's Dark Matter Designs with Boro-Toro.

Although these were the games chosen by the judges the standards of all the entries were highly professional and the competition was very tight indeed.

These were the winners but for me there were a couple of titles that really stood out from the rest by offering something different from what's available in the mainstream.

I feel a bit smug because my top pick was Origamee, the well-deserved winner on the competition. This is a superb little platform game that draws some of its visual inspiration from Viewtiful Joe. The game has a very cute, colourful, manga style that fits in very well with the gameplay.

This is where the similarity ends though. You play as a boy who has to escape from a paper universe by folding himself into various shapes to navigate the various levels. You can fold yourself into a rhino to attack enemies and know over walls, a frog to jump up to seemingly unreachable platforms and a plane to glide over long gaps.

The game's chief innovation is its very unique control system. Designed for Wiimote, you move your character by holding the trigger of the controller and dragging him in the direction you want him to go. Faster movements like attacking and jumping can be achieved by holding the trigger again and slashing the controller in the desired direction. In addition to this you can change shape by pressing the d-pad at any time with each shape being mapped to a different directional key. By holding down the trigger for longer periods of time the higher you can jump.

The real fun comes when you start using all this together. You can change shape at any time so you can use the frog shape to jump high and then change into the plane at the top of the jump to glide over a long gap. At first the control system seems a bit odd but it actually turns out to be surprisingly intuitive. Blue Skies have take a lot of time to consider just how to map the controls properly and it has paid off in dividends. The resulting blend of visual style and intuitive controls creates a very playable game that has heaps of potential.

Next time I will highlight the two titles that, despite not winning, deserve an honourable mention.

As part of their sponsorship (which apparently is for a significant sum of money to support the competition), a brief to develop games with an educational or serious 'twist' has also been provided:

4Dare Game Development Brief

Channel 4 Education and Dare To Be Digital invite you to develop a game that goes beyond the challenge of swift hand-eye coordination, and engages a player’s brain as much as their thumbs. Primarily we all play games because they’re fun, but can you develop a game that’s hugely playable, and fun but provokes thought and/or leaves the player with something useful?

While teams do not need to target this brief, successful games that do may go on to secure publication deals with Channel 4. The challenge will be to have some educational/serious content while focussing on developing an entertainment product:

At Channel 4 education are aim is to make first class entertainment products, that also educate our audience . With that in mind we should make clear that we are not looking for:

• Games that are designed specifically to be educational or serious
• Games that replicate (or replicate with a twist) existing offerings that have been shown or are purported to have educational impact

So, there you go. NOT designed specifically to be educational, but thought provoking. There are a bunch of other requirements, which do sound quite ambitious for a nine-week development project. Looking forward to seeing what comes out of this.

Organized By: Channel 4 and The University of Abertay Dundee

Key Dates:
Deadlines for Submission of Application Form:
Scotland- May 6, 2008
All Ireland- April 22, 2008
China- May 1, 2008
India- May 2, 2008
South East, West Midlands and London- May 6, 2008

For Whom:
Team of 5 students (Postgraduate or Undergraduate) from Universities or Art Colleges within one of the following areas / regions- Scotland, Ireland, china, India, South East, West Midlands and London
(Web Link for More Information)

Dare to be Digital is a video games development competition for extremely talented students at Universities and Colleges of Art. Teams of 5 students, usually a mix of artists, programmers and audio, assemble in a regional hosting center for 10 weeks to develop a prototype video game, receiving daily support and weekly training sessions from industry specialists. Every year between June and August, students form teams of five and compete over 10 weeks to design a fully functioning video game prototype. At the end of 10 weeks, all the teams will gather at Dare Protoplay to showcase their work and be judged by industry experts. Dare Protoplay represents the most innovative design from emerging games artists and programmers and is open to the public to come and play the games.

At the end of the competition, the prototypes are displayed at a special talent showcasing event in Edinburgh, Dare ProtoPlay, alongside the Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival in August. The general public as well as industry experts get to play and vote for the games. Prizes are then awarded to the winning teams at a special awards ceremony. Later in the year the winning teams attend the BAFTA Video Games Awards to compete for the coveted "Ones to Watch Award".

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