More than 13,000 people are expected to descend upon Dundee as it once again stages Scotland’s biggest video games festival.
Held over four days, Dare ProtoPlay is held as the finale of Abertay University’s renowned Dare to be Digital game design competition.
It sees 16 teams of students building games at their home universities before travelling to Dundee to show the fruits of their labours to the public.
This year’s Dare ProtoPlay event will be even bigger than usual, however, as it will be combined with the third annual Edinburgh Game Symposium.
That will bring live dance music played on Game Boys, free workshops for young game designers and an exciting programme of talks to the city.
Event directors Luci Holland and Jacob Pernell have organised a broad programme of inspiring, innovative and creative activities in game development and audio, as well as free workshops .
The highly respected game design conference ends with its traditional live orchestral performance, this time with ensemble Mantra Collective performing arrangements of indie game music, followed by dance musician Chipzel, who uses Game Boys to create energetic, melodic dance tracks.
Luci said: “We’re delighted to be bringing the Edinburgh Game Symposium to Dundee’s Dare ProtoPlay for our event this year.
“The EGS seeks to bring awareness to game development and audio design, support aspiring developers and the fantastic talent cultivated in Scotland and connect with the international game and arts sectors in an inspiring, inclusive and fun space.
“Joining with Scotland’s biggest video games festival to bring our programme of professional industry panels, presentations, young developer workshops and live music performances to new, wider audiences in Dundee is really exciting.
“As well as games and design, we are also always looking to shed light on the roles of game music and sound, and so we are thrilled to have London- based Game Boy chip-musician Chipzel perform in addition to our traditional indie game music concert.”
Dare ProtoPlay runs from Thursday August 13 to Sunday 16 in Dundee’s Caird Hall and City Square, while the Edinburgh Game Symposium will be held in the Caird Hall on Wednesday 12 and Thursday 13.
The festival is free and suitable for all ages.
Tickets for the conference and concerts are available from edingame.com. Visit dareprotoplay.com for more information.