05 Jun TALENTED COLCHESTER STUDENTS AMONG FINALISTS FOR THE 2023 BAFTA YOUNG GAME DESIGNERS COMPETITION
Today, BAFTA has unveiled the 44 talented finalists, aged between 10 and 18, for this year’s BAFTA Young Game Designers (YGD) competition.
Rowan (10), Orion (12) and Shannon (14) Burhan from Colchester entered the competition as a team with their game ‘Wild World’, and have been shortlisted for the prestigious Game Concept Award. ‘Wild World’ is a Playstation game that involves re-diversifying the natural world, one creature at a time. The team is aiming to engage young people with the real problem of biodiversity decline, and to teach them some practical solutions.
The siblings said: “The best bit of our game idea is you get to find out about biodiversity without even knowing you are learning. Everyone needs to know about how to rebuild the natural world.”
BAFTA YGD is a year-round initiative of public events, workshops and a competition for 10-18 year-olds, culminating in the annual YGD award ceremony to celebrate finalists and winners, which will be streamed digitally on BAFTA Kids & Teens YouTube, with highlights available on LinkedIn. This year’s ceremony is taking place on Thursday 22 June, and will be hosted by multi-award nominated actor and comedian Inel Tomlinson, for the second year running. Official Partners of BAFTA YGD include: Creative Assembly, Criterion Games, Epic Games, PlayStation, Warner Bros Games, Wizards of the Coast.
Across the UK, young people have been hard at work conceptualising and creating brand new video games for this year’s competition. From hundreds of entries, from both teams and individuals, a virtual jury of industry professionals has whittled the list down to just 40 games, which were selected for the creativity of their vision, and the technicality of their execution. With shortlisted entries encompassing intergalactic adventures, obstacle courses, word puzzles and much more, this year’s finalists shine a light on the originality and artistry that goes into game design, and provide an exciting insight into the next generation of the UK Games industry. Details on all finalists and their games are available here.
This year’s finalists have entered for one of two awards up for grabs: the YGD Game Concept Award, which rewards the most original and best thought-out game idea, and the YGD Game Making Award, which goes to the most impressive use of coding skills on a freely available software, to create a prototype game.
Each award is split into two age groups: 10-14 years and 15-18 years. Winning entries will be judged on gameplay design and their suitability for the chosen games platform, with the aim of supporting accessible career pathways into game design and thus nurturing the future generation of British gamemakers. Previous winners include Alfie Wilkinson and Jaime Williams, who co-presented at this year’s BAFTA Games Awards, with alumni Joe Straker and Jonathan Ashton both sitting on this year’s jury.
2023 winners will be featured in the prestigious Power Up experience, alongside some of the very best video games and consoles from the past five decades, including an array of previous YGD winners. Power Up opens at the Science Museum in London on 27 July 2023, and is currently open at the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester.
For over a decade, BAFTA YGD has given young people and educators unique access and insights into some of the most creative minds in the industry, through competitions, mentorship, exclusive masterclasses, as well as online workshops, teaching tools, and networking opportunities.
