A COMPANY in Teesside has won a Dragon's Den-style competition to find talent in the North-East video-game development sector.

Middlesbrough-based Lo-Jen took part in Codeworks GameHorizon's Game Academy, which saw local companies and graduates pitch their video-game concepts to an expert panel.

The company, which was set up by Teesside University graduates Caleb Lowe and Tom Jenns and University of East Anglia graduate Jesse Roberts, came first in the regional challenge.

Lo-Jen's pitch, aimed at the hand-held console market, was praised by the judges as "strong and commercially viable".

The company was awarded a training and mentoring package worth more than £2,000.

The team hopes winning the award will help the company break into the rapidly-expanding video-game market.

Mr Lowe, operations director, said: "The feedback on the day was fantastic, but to win the additional mentoring package means we'll have expert support to help turn our ideas into reality."

The industry panel consisted of Pete O'Donnell, chief games designer for leading UK publisher Codemasters; Tom O'Connor, from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe; Darren Jobling, director of business development at Gateshead-based driving game specialist Eutechnyx; and Tony Parkes, executive producer at Midway's Newcastle studio.

Last year's competition winner, Teesside University graduate Jeremiah Alexander, used his prize to set up educational games company Babel Digital.