SETU is celebrating outstanding success at the Animation Dingle festival 2026, where students secured three of the five nominations in the Game Stings category, and went on to achieve RTÉ KIDS Animation Dingle Awards Best Game Sting. Animation Dingle is a Student Academy Awards® approved Festival.
This year’s theme, 'An Phiast’s Untold Story' inspired students to reimagine the legendary Dingle mascot through innovative storytelling and gameplay. SETU’s nominees stood out for their creativity, technical execution, and strong narrative design.
The nominated projects included: 'An Phiast: Fishy Business', a detective game, developed by Riona Kelly, Sophia Stanley, Tymoteusz Walichnowski, and Ian Perez Bunuel; 'An Phiast: Untold Story', a platformer game, developed by Mikey Holmes and Jessica Curran. Also nominated was 'An Phiast: A Silent Hero', a narrative-driven side scroller, developed by Elisabeth Sykorova, David Hajek, and Alex Paquette which won RTÉ KIDS Animation Dingle Awards Best Game Sting 2026.
SETU has reinforced its position as a leader in digital story telling. The Animation Dingle festival continues to showcase the very best in emerging talent, and this year’s results highlight the ambition of SETU students.
“To have three out of five nominations at a international level is an incredible achievement for our students. It speaks not only to their creativity and technical skill, but also to their ability to interpret a brief and tell stories in unique ways. We are extremely proud of the work of our Interactive Digital Art and Design students working alongside our Game Developers.”
Roxanne Burchartz Digital Art Lecturer at SETU.
“Securing many nominations is a huge milestone for our programme. It places our students in a very strong position going into the awards, and it reflects the high standard of storytelling we strive to cultivate at SETU."
Nigel Whyte Head of Department of Computing at SETU.
