BAFTA win for talented students

The talented team clinched the BAFTA ‘Ones to Watch’ award at the GAME British Academy Video Games Awards, held at the London Hilton in Park Lane last night (Tues).

The students from the School of Art & Design and School of Computing and Information Technology were nominated for the award after winning a national competition Dare to be Digital,a video games development contest organised with Channel 4.

The team, named DarkMatter Designs, consisted of four Wolverhampton students and one from the University of Birmingham. They designed Boro-Toro, a platform puzzle game which uses an innovative control system using Wii technology.

Project manager Adam Westwood, who graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Computer Science from the University last year, said: "It's a fantastic honour to win this award and it could have certainly gone to any of the other games. Taking part in Dare to be Digital has been such an amazing experience for us all and we have gained so much through it, to be nominated and win a BAFTA is the icing on the cake."

Sarah Slater, Director of the University’s Institute of Digital Entertainment, said: “This is great news once again and well done to a great team of guys for their well deserved BAFTA, including two guys who now work at a leading games company, RockStar North.

“This adds to the continually growing status of the University as a graduation point for students wanting to enter the animation and games industry. With the launch of an Institute of Digital Entertainment covering games and animation, we hope to continue ensuring that regional companies and graduates can compete in the global digital entertainment marketplace.”

Dare to be Digital was a rigorous selection process which took place over ten weeks last summer. At the end the teams competed for cash prizes, and Boro-Toro was named as a winner.

Adam’s team mates are Owen Schwehr, who also graduated last year and is now in Japan, Graham Ranson and Yves Wheeler, who are still studying at Wolverhampton, and Matt Booton, from the University of Birmingham.

The University of Wolverhampton is the regional partner for Dare to be Digital 2009.

The game’s website is http://www.boro-toro.co.nr/

Further information

Picture: Left to right - Matt Booton, Graham Ranson, Yves Wheeler and Adam Westwood celebrating their win last night.

Screen grabs from the game are also available – please contact Vickie Woodward in the Media Relations Office on 01902 322736 or 07973 335112.