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 |
| Website | danhett |
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