Dundee is well-known as a wee city that packs a powerful punch. But in the city’s videogames cluster that has been super-charged to global effect!
Here’s just a few of the reasons we should be so proud of our masters of digital design…
1. Games are BIG business
The videogames industry is now worth around £4bn in the UK and over $135bn on a global level – that’s more than the film and music industries combined!
Dundee is one of the key UK games design hubs and every year around 250 games students graduate from the city’s Abertay University, going on to take up jobs with studios all over the world.
2. The power to change a city
The booming videogames industry has been a key driver of Dundee’s digital, cultural and creative regeneration, and was a major factor in V&A Dundee’s decision to locate by the Tay.
The museum’s brilliant Videogames: Design/Play/Disrupt exhibition has just ended its run there, bringing all things games to the masses.
3. Abertay is the best games Uni in Europe
The prestigious Princeton Review has ranked Abertay’s degree courses number one in Europe for the last five consecutive years!
The Uni is a UK Centre for Excellence in Computer Games Education and attracts students and staff from across the globe.
4.Minecraft!
Need we say more? The sensational 4J Studios produce the console edition of the world’s best-selling game of all time.
They’re based in super-cool new studios at Dundee’s Waters’ Edge and have helped put the city firmly on the international map.
5. Women in Games
Dundee provides a leading voice in the Women in Games movement, which boasts Abertay University’s Professor Ruth Falconer as one of its executive board members.
WiG’s aim is to achieve ‘full and lasting equality’ for all women throughout the games industry.
6. The Speccy!
The legendary ZX Spectrum console was mass produced in Dundee in the 1980s in a factory owned by Timex.
Local gaming folklore goes that much of the city’s computing talent developed directly from bedroom coders who used them to crack and create their own games.
7. The godfather of Grand Theft Auto
The godfather of Dundee game design, Dave Jones, was a student at Abertay University then went on to create the smash hit Lemmings…not mention a pretty successful wee game known as Grand Theft Auto! The latest version of the GTA franchise was the fastest-selling entertainment product in history on its release in 2013, earning $1 billion in its first three days.
8. Education, education, education
The world’s first computer games degrees were created in Dundee! While some scoffed at Abertay’s bold move in 1997, the university has well and truly had the last laugh, and now attracts students from all over the planet, including China, India and North America.
9. All hail the indy devs!
Per head of population, Dundee has more game design studios than almost any other area of the UK.
Local start-ups regularly go on to achieve critical and commercial success, with Ninja Kiwi, Tag Games and Ruffian Games among a host of talented and now firmly-established companies.
If anyone in your family is thinking of getting into the videogames industry, find out about the degrees on offer at Abertay University during their Open Days on September 28 or October 23.
