The Game Boy retro console is making an unusual comeback at Dundee’s computer games festival to create music by a dance DJ.
Live dance music played on Game Boys is just one of the attractions coming to the Dare ProtoPlay festival this week, courtesy of the Edinburgh Game Symposium.
The game design conference will end with a traditional live orchestral performance, 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.
Starting today, Dare ProtoPlay is Scotland’s biggest video games festival, which attracted more than 13,000 people across four days last year.
This is the third annual Edinburgh Game Symposium (EGS), held as the finale of Abertay University’s Dare to be Digital game design competition, which this year sees 16 teams of students building games at their home universities before travelling to Dundee to showcase them to the public.
Event directors Luci Holland and Jacob Pernell have organised creative activities in game development and audio, as well as free workshops for young game designers and a programme of talks.
Luci said: “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 for us.
“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.”
The free games festival Dare ProtoPlay starts today and runs until Sunday in Dundee’s Caird Hall and City Square, with the Edinburgh Game Symposium: ProtoPlay Edition kicking off yesterday and continuing today.
Tickets for the conference and concerts are available from www.edingame.com.