THREE Canadian entrepreneurs who chose the North-East as a base for their computer games business have secured a £30,000 grant.

Onisoft, of Teesside, has won Proof of Concept funding from NStar - the unofficial sixth centre of excellence given the task of bringing investment to the region.

Doug Wolff and Paul Dolhai set up the company after studying for masters degrees in games programming at the University of Teesside.

Quality resources and expertise in the area persuaded the pair to establish Onisoft in Middlesbrough, rather than their home town of Hamilton.

Schoolfriend Mark South joined them to become their business development manager.

Mr Wolff, creative director, said: "We chose Teesside as our base because of the wealth of digital industry talent in the region and the world-leading gaming expertise."

The company will use the funding to create artificial intelligence camera technology that it predicts will lift the quality of game-playing.

It hopes to develop a prototype which can be licensed to other game developers.

Onisoft, based at the Academic Enterprise Centre, University of Teesside, had its application to the Proof of Concept fund supported by Codeworks, the North-East's centre of digital excellence.

Herbert Kim, chief executive officer of Codeworks, said: "Games development is one of the region's core strengths within the digital sector.

"Onisoft's proposition is very strong and I look forward to seeing the results of the exciting development work they are conducting."

Onisoft is part of a Codeworks Connect-sponsored delegation of games developers travelling to the US to exhibit at the world's largest games and digital media trade show, E3 - a three-day event which began yesterday