Dan Hett

Dan Hett is a digital artist, writer and games designer from Manchester, UK.[1] He is also a member of the Algorave live coding electronic music and visuals movement, performing under the name Rituals.[2]

Dan Hett
Hett speaking at an online event in 2022.
Occupation(s)digital artist and writer
Websitedanhett.com

Career

Hett’s writing is influenced by the death of his younger brother Martyn Hett in the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing.[3] He wrote a trilogy of games about the experience: c ya laterrrr, The Loss Levels and Sorry to Bother You. Hett is known for short introspective autobiographical narrative games and interactive fiction, which explore radicalisation, extremism and identity politics in the UK.[4][5] His work The Loss Levels has been exhibited at Now Play This festival in London and Sheffield DocFest.[6][7]

Until 2016 Hett worked in the BBC Children’s and R&D departments, where he developed apps and digital games across a range of languages and platforms. He was technical lead on the CBeebies Storytime app, he also designed and built the core of the BBC’s first cross-platform multiplayer games API.[8]

He founded a small independent games studio PASSENGER GAMES in 2018, which produced the game Closed Hands.[9]

In 2021 Hett became Creative Technologist at the School of Digital Arts, Manchester Metropolitan University.[10]

Awards
  • 2015, Broadcast Digital Awards Winner of Best Digital Children’s Content for CBeebies Storytime[11]
  • 2015 British Academy of Film and Television Arts Winner of Children’s Interactive award for The Dumping Ground[12]
  • 2020 New Media Writing Prize winner for c ya laterrrr.[13][14][15]

Works

Interactive Fiction
  • c ya laterrrr, 2017
  • The Loss Levels, 2018
  • Sorry To Bother You, 2018
  • Closed Hands, 2021

Non-fiction
  • My Brother Martyn Seized Every Moment - This Christmas, We All Should Too, 2017, Huffington Post
  • More games should be truly honest about death, 2018, Rock, Paper, Shotgun
  • Show, Don't Tell, 2019, FutureEverything
  • Dreams becomes reality: the game that can make an artist out of anyone, 2019, The Guardian
  • Online hate threatens us all. Platforms can and must do more to eradicate it, 2019, The Guardian
  • Love, loss, and virtual memorials, 2020, Observer

Reviews

References
  1. "Dan Hett | ELMCIP". elmcip.net. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  2. "Rituals". Algorave. 5 July 2016. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  3. "Games console: Dan Hett, the indie game designer pouring his grief into interactive art". the Guardian. 26 April 2018. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  4. "Dan Hett's video games take on grief, radicalisation and ethical journalism". The Big Issue. 7 November 2019. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  5. Purchese, Robert (8 May 2021). "Understanding Closed Hands, a game about reactions to a terrible event". Eurogamer. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  6. "Exploring virtual worlds together: Alternate Realities at Sheffield Doc/Fest 2018 | Sight & Sound". British Film Institute. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  7. "My brother Martyn Hett died in the Manchester bombing - this is why I made a video game about it". inews.co.uk. 18 June 2018. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  8. "Dan Hett - BBC R&D". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  9. "Closed Hands: the novel-sized game exploring extremism". The Face. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  10. "Manchester writer, artist and games developer joins School of Digital Arts - School of Digital Arts (SODA) – Manchester Metropolitan University". 23 September 2021. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  11. "Winners 2015". Broadcast Digital Awards. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  12. "British Academy Children's Awards Winners Announced". www.bafta.org. 22 November 2015. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  13. "Archive". New Media Writing Prize. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  14. "Interview with Main Prize winner Dan Hett". New Media Writing Prize. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  15. "New Media Writing Prize 2020 | ELMCIP". elmcip.net. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.