The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) is hosting free workshops around the UK to inspire young people to consider a career in games. The workshops, which began in Glasgow in April and take place in Manchester, Newcastle and London in May, are in support of the BAFTA Young Game Designers (YGD) competition in association with Nominet Trust. The competition is open for entries for 10-18 year-olds until Monday 1st June.
At each workshop, run in conjunction with coding club CoderDojo, games professionals from BAFTA-winning and nominated games studios, will explain the various roles in game design and the basics of coding, and will give feedback on the young participants’ game ideas.
The next workshops are at The Sharp Project in Manchester on Sunday 10th May, the Life Science Centre in Newcastle on Saturday 16th May, and at the Tea Building in London, also on Saturday 16th May. A girls-only event – aimed at encouraging more young women into the industry by providing access to successful women in games – is planned to take place in London later in the month.
The next three workshops are fully booked, but hopefuls can add their names to the waiting list via http://ygd.bafta.org/events.
The BAFTA YGD competition aims to inspire the UK’s game creators of the future by giving 10-18 year-olds the chance to design and make their own game. The winners will be named at a special awards ceremony in July.
Entrants – who can be individuals or a team of up to three people – can choose to enter two creative categories: The YGD Game Concept Award, to create a concept for a new game; and the YGD Game Making Award, to make a game using freely available software. The winners will receive a host of prizes, including further development of their game with industry professionals.
In addition, the public can nominate an individual for The YGD Mentor Award, for an inspirational individual involved in the education of young game designers. The BAFTA Games Committee will select an individual for the YGD Hero Award, for a games industry professional who supports young game designers.
The BAFTA YGD competition is part of a year-round programme of activity which gives young people and educators unique insights into the games industry and access to the creative minds behind some of their favourite games. Support includes: a website (www.bafta.org/ygd ) where BAFTA members, award winners and nominees share their insights and advice through interviews and exclusive video content; a web series, that takes a light-hearted look behind the scenes of the games industry; a range of teaching resources that link the BAFTYA YGD competition to the national curriculum; an online ‘feedback hub’ where young people can submit ideas or questions about their entry, with the chance of gaining a personalised response from a games expert; and live workshops around the country.
Nominet Trust – the UK’s only dedicated tech for good funder – is headline partner of the initiative, working with BAFTA to develop additional schools-focussed activity addressing the under-representation of women in the games workforce. Other supporting partners of BAFTA Young Game Designers include: Bethesda Softworks, Criterion Games (an EA Studio), Google, Jagex, King, Pinewood Studios Group, SEGA, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Unity, and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Abertay University supports the development of the games of the winners of the BAFTA YGD competition.
To enter the BAFTA YGD competition, and to view the full list of prizes, go to www.bafta.org/ygd .
Comments are closed.