Live dance music played on Game Boys, free workshops for young game designers and an exciting programme of talks are coming to the Dare ProtoPlay festival in Dundee in August courtesy of the Edinburgh Game Symposium.

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.

This is the third annual Edinburgh Game Symposium, with event directors Luci Holland and Jacob Pernell curating a broad programme of inspiring, innovative and creative activities in game development and audio, as well as free workshops for aspiring young game designers.

Dare ProtoPlay is Scotland’s biggest video games festival, attracting over 13,000 people across four days last year.

It is 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 show their games to the public.

Luci Holland, Director of the Edinburgh Game Symposium, 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 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.”

Edinburgh Game Symposium: ProtoPlay Edition will be held in Dundee’s Caird Hall on Wednesday 12 and Thursday 13 August.

Tickets for the conference and concerts are available from www.edingame.com

Dare ProtoPlay runs from Thursday 13 to Sunday 16 in Dundee’s Caird Hall and City Square. The festival is free and suitable for all ages.

For more information, please visit www.dareprotoplay.com