Abertay hosts pioneering games research conference

Abertay hosts pioneering games research conference

The world’s biggest gathering of international games researchers will descend on Dundee this week to exchange cutting-edge ideas on the future of computer games design and development.More than 350 researchers from the UK, Europe, North America, Asia and Australia will gather at Dundee’s Abertay University from 1-6 August 2016 to take part in the landmark event. Billed as an unprecedented, international gathering of games researchers, the event is the first ever conference to be organised jointly by the Finland-based Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) and the Foundations of Digital Games (FDG), the world’s two leading organisations in digital games research. It is also the first time that an event of this magnitude has come to the UK. Dundee, with its reputation as one of the world’s gaming hotspots, is ideally placed to host the event. Jim Whitehead, President of the Society for the Advancement of Digital Games and member of the programme committee said: 'Abertay University is among the oldest computer game programmes in the world and has been a longtime leader in games education. It was a natural match to host the first ever DiGRA/FDG conference in Dundee.' Cutting-edge research including designing for virtual reality will be unveiled at the conference. There will also be keynote seminars  from world-leading researchers, theorists and artists including Lev Manovich, author of seminal work 'The Language of New Media' and Ju Row Farr, founding member of the interactive media artists’ collective 'Blast Theory'. DiGRA & FDG has been scheduled to coincide with Abertay University’s internationally-renowned game design contest, Dare to be Digital. The contest culminates in Dare ProtoPlay, Scotland’s biggest indie games festival, taking place at Dundee’s Caird Hall and City Square, from 4–7 August (free entry). For more information go to www.daretobedigital.com.

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