Dan Hett Explained

Dan Hett
Occupation:	digital artist and writer

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]

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, and also designed and built the core of the BBC's first cross-platform multiplayer games API.^[8]

He founded a small independent games studio called 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

External links

• Official website
• Dan Hett's creator page on Itch.io

Notes and References

1. Web site: Dan Hett ELMCIP. 2022-01-29. elmcip.net.
2. Web site: 2016-07-05. Rituals. 2022-01-29. Algorave. en-GB.
3. Web site: 2018-04-26. Games console: Dan Hett, the indie game designer pouring his grief into interactive art. 2022-01-29. the Guardian. en.
4. Web site: 2019-11-07. Dan Hett’s video games take on grief, radicalisation and ethical journalism. 2022-01-29. The Big Issue. en.
5. Web site: Purchese. Robert. 2021-05-08. Understanding Closed Hands, a game about reactions to a terrible event. 2022-01-29. Eurogamer. en.
6. Web site: Exploring virtual worlds together: Alternate Realities at Sheffield Doc/Fest 2018 Sight & Sound. 2022-01-29. British Film Institute. en.
7. Web site: 2018-06-18. My brother Martyn Hett died in the Manchester bombing - this is why I made a video game about it. 2022-01-29. inews.co.uk. en.
8. Web site: Dan Hett - BBC R&D. 2022-01-29. www.bbc.co.uk.
9. Web site: Closed Hands: the novel-sized game exploring extremism. 2022-01-29. The Face. en-gb.
10. Web site: 2021-09-23. Manchester writer, artist and games developer joins School of Digital Arts - School of Digital Arts (SODA) – Manchester Metropolitan University. 2022-01-29. en-GB.
11. Web site: Winners 2015. 2022-01-29. Broadcast Digital Awards. en-US.
12. Web site: 2015-11-22. British Academy Children's Awards Winners Announced. 2022-01-29. www.bafta.org. en.
13. Web site: Archive. 2022-01-29. New Media Writing Prize. en-US.
14. Web site: Interview with Main Prize winner Dan Hett. 2022-01-29. New Media Writing Prize. en-US.
15. Web site: New Media Writing Prize 2020 ELMCIP. 2022-01-29. elmcip.net.