8 July P2icc0a1d7 illy, London BAF TA 195
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HRH The Duke of Cambridge, KG President of the Academy
Welcome to the 2017 BAFTA Young Game Designers Awards. So this is the seventh year of the Young Game Designers Awards program, and I am delighted to be part of this program and this team in my first year as chair of the Games Committee at BAFTA. Each year I am truly inspired by the amazing games that we see and the talent, creativity and enthusiasm that all our entrants show. I am astounded by the quality of the work of all the participants, and never fail to be humbled by how much better their work is than what I could do at their age. The entrants to this competition will help to define the future of our industry, and these people will come up with the next great generation of games, and I for one look forward to seeing what they can come up with and playing their games. But we are also here to recognise the things that inspire the next generation, and we are delighted to honour the companies and teams within our industry that encourage people to get involved in making games, as well as the individuals that work tirelessly to inspire the next generation of games makers into making those games and helping them to achieve their dreams. But these Young Game Designer Awards are about celebrating the achievements of the finalists, winners and the YGD initiative itself, and I’m delighted to be involved this year and I hope to be involved for many years to come. To give our Young Game Designers that same support would not be possible without our industry partners: Criterion Games, Jagex, King, Sega, Sony Interactive Entertainment Ubisoft, Unity and WB Games. We gratefully thank them all for their generous support. Best of luck to all finalists and have an excellent ceremony! Nick Button-Brown Chairman, BAFTA Games Committee
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YGD 2017 It’s been a very busy year so far for the BAFTA Young Game Designers. The 2017 Competition launched in January and we have been visiting as many of you as possible at workshops held in Edinburgh, London, Liverpool and Norwich (with more to come before the end of the year!)
New Educational Resources! In 2017 we launched our brand new educational resources to help support young people entering the competition. These include worksheets, group activities and session plans to structure your game design plan. These resources are all free to download on the BAFTA YGD website – Teachers, check ygd.bafta.org/resources shortly to find out how you can get your hands on a physical pack
What next for our Finalists? The YGD Competition doesn’t just end with a glitzy award ceremony – there are some awesome prizes to win too! For 2016’s winners this included a trip to Abertay University to find out more about how games are made and to see their game ideas produced into a working prototype. A new challenge was set this year by Game Concept 15-18 Year Winner, Nic Gordon who came up with the first ever YGD VR game idea! Abertay students were able to create the build using the PlayStation VR Developer kit provided by sponsors, Sony Interactive Entertainment.
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WHAT OUR 2016 WINNERS SAID: “YGD has been pretty life changing. It’s given me an opportunity to see how the industry works and how I could go forward with things, if I wanted to. It’s been a once in a lifetime experience.” Charlie Thurston 2016 Winner (10-14 Game Making Award)
“All of the trips were really good because I got an insight into which programmes to use and how they actually make games – from the designers to the programmers.” Aysheq Hussain 2016 Winner (10-14 Game Concept Award)
NEWS ON DANIEL SMITH Daniel Smith, 2016 winner of the Game Making Award (ages 15-18) with Spectrum, has had his game picked up by a games publisher. It is currently in development and will be released commercially in 2018.
“The best thing about YGD has been the opportunity, the doors that it has opened. I got to speak to people that I’d never normally be able to speak to in the industry. You develop connections that allow you to do other things. Getting my game published basically came as a result of the conversation that I had while I was at the awards ceremony. For me the opportunity to meet and interact with people has been a really big deal.” Daniel Smith 2016 Winner (15-18 Game Making Award)
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THE NOMINEES
GAME CONCEPT AWARD
10–14 YEARS
Adrianna’s Hero Eleri Gray (14) Mya Oaten (14) Newport, Wales Platform: Desktop “What seems to be a typical story has a devastating twist, experienced through an innovative new style of gameplay.
For the most creative and original concept for a new game
Kagaku
Neha Biju (12) Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands Platform: Desktop
Last Light
The Scrappy Races
Lathallan School Catterline, Aberdeenshire Platform: Mobile & Tablet
St Egwins CE Middle School Croydon, Greater London Platform: Desktop
Campbell Mearns (14)
“Kagaku is an educative yet addictive game that will inspire young teenagers to be part of the “The world has run out of light, world of STEM (Science, Technology, plunged into darkness, you are the Engineering and Mathematics) and last flame in the world, and it is your encourage them to learn the order job to reignite it. of the periodic table. You are the last flame on earth, Kagaku is the game for all those created by a spark just as the sun who wish to learn the periodic table went out. You realise it is your job yet want to enjoy their time doing to relight the world, so you travel it. The aim of teh game is to go around world cities lighting things through a mythical maze in which as you go along.” you will find various monsters who are guarding the element you want to find.”
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Princess Adrianna has been kidnapped by Asho, an intimidating dragon, and is being taken to his castle. Rudy, a boy who is deeply in love with Adrianna, sets out to save her.”
Harry Gorrill (11)
“You choose a team to work with and make a racing vehicle out of parts that you find in a scrapyard with a series of challenges. You have six hours at a mini scrapyard between each challenge to make your car worthy for the task. You can make any type of vehicle ranging from a truck to a dragster or even a hot rod but using only what you can find in the scrapyard.”
Clearing MEMORY
Ctrl+U
Swindon, Wiltshire Platform: Desktop, Console (Nintendo)
Twickenham, London Platform: Desktop
Kitty Belcher (13)
“When a seemingly innocent glitch sucks Pixel into her games console, she has to battle her way through all her old games to get rid of the glitched save file - a stroll through your favourite genres, all in one. With a surprisingly expressive cast of characters, Pixel fights her way out of the console by getting to the glitch that sent her there and destroying it.”
Seconds; Sentient
Yue Qi (13)
Coventry, West Midlands Platform: Desktop “A chance to re-live a week with some additional quirks; what if you could see sounds, hear colours and touch emotions with that second chance to guide you on your journey of perfecting mistakes but you can’t control your actions. Players will ‘guide’ the playable character - Yumin - within the game, watching the progression of Yumin becoming self-aware across journey filled with odd aesthetics.”
Sophia Snow (13)
“Ctrl+U is a unique puzzle game in which you are put into the shoes of a white-hat hacker working for the police in New York. In Ctrl+U you are Quinn, a whitehat hacker working for the police in New York. You start the game on your first day at work, and complete missions as you work your way up the employee ladder. Quinn is a gender-neutral character, so the player can interpret them as either (or no) gender.”
Space Race
Henna Station
Jayavarshini Sankaran (13)
Old Palace of John Whitgift School Platform: Mobile & Tablet “It is a game where you draw henna designs. My game is a game for the artistic people out there. My game is a henna station where you have templates of henna and you have to trace over it.”
TorchLighter
Jade Liggitt (13) Elsie Mae Williams (13) Elizabeth McMahon (13) Penzanze, Cornwall Holy Trinity Academy Trust Kidderminster, Worcestershire Platform: Mobile & Tablet “Can you beat the time with puzzles for the mind, games to play, can you race today? You are a space man or woman and you have a dog or monkey as a companion. The aim is to complete all races across the planets in our solar system and progress to save a lost space team, who ran off course during a mission similar to yours.”
Platform: Desktop
“You are an employee of TorchLighters Inc, a company hired by fantasy dungeon bosses to prepare their dungeons for adventurers. It always bothered both me and lots of other fantasy RPG fans that whenever you walk into an ancient dungeon that nobody has supposedly been in for centuries, all of the torches are lit, the traps haven’t degraded, etc. Do the minions do it? Is everything just magical? Well, this game is my answer to that question.” 5
ANY.TIFF
Aryaan Awais (17) King Edward VI Aston Grammar School Birmingham, West Midlands Platform: Desktop “The world has run out of light, plunged into darkness, you are the last flame in the world, and it is your job to reignite it.
Beloved Reverie Keelin Rose MacGregor (17)
Uxbridge College Chalfont St.Peter, Buckinghamshire Platform: Desktop “It will, hopefully, tug on the players heartstrings and cause them to fall into an unhealthy relationship with it.
Guzzlesarus’s Culinary Capers
Anna Carter (15)
Lincoln, East Midlands Platform: Mobile & Tablet “Fun, fast, nutritious and delicious is how food should be so let’s get our kids cooking and exploring how food journeys from farm gate to dinner plate... using Guzzlesarus’s culinary capers of course!
You are the last flame on earth, created by a spark just as the sun went out. You realise it is your job to relight the world, so you travel around world cities lighting things as you go along.”
You play as Piper, a 10 year old girl who’s older sister Holi has just passed away from heart failure after dealing with cardiomyopathy her whole life. You’re young, scared and alone - feeling as if you were abandoned by your best friend.”
Kanji Warrior
Spectrum
Strike Vector
Castleford, West Yorkshire Platform: Desktop
Southborough, Kent Platform: Mobile & Tablet, Other
Daniel Goldie Furlong (17)
Edinburgh, Platform: Mobile & Tablet “Learn the Japanese alphabets by writing your way to victory! Players perform attacks and solve puzzles by writing in Japanese, while simultaneously teaching the player the three Japanese alphabets (Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji).”
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Lewis Hepworth (15)
Guzzlesarus’s culinary capers is an exciting adventure game for three to six year olds which is all about teaching culinary skills. Each week the parent chooses a recipe from the list which will be cooked at the end of the week with their child.”
Hugo Webber (17)
“A game about graphics, colour and “You are the admiral of the last great lack thereof... space fleet; marshal your crews and assign your orders, then sit back and You find yourself trapped in a cell, watch cinematic battles in 3D. details include a concrete floor, rusty bars and shambled brick Strike Vector is a game about walls, and two guards patrolling successfully managing your junior the perimeter. you, the player, must officers to succeed in epic space obviously escape. But how?” battles. I derived the setting for strike vector from my comic ‘Isolation’ that I am writing as part of my A level Art course.”
THE NOMINEES
GAME CONCEPT AWARD
Hide the Seekers
Djenaba Davis-Eyo (16) Katie Lim (16)
15–18 YEARS
London Platform: Desktop, Console (Xbox, PlayStation) “If you had the power to change history, would you? Two, pacifist girls must dedicate their lives to restoring the world’s most important historical events.
For the most creative and original concept for a new game
A history lover and physics fanatic find out that they are the Seekers; the ones that will save time and history when the Old Time Keeper inevitably loses the fragments of time. The two, young girls must dedicate their lives to restoring history’s most important events.”
Subatomic
Toby Tonks (18) Alcester, Warwickshire Platform: Mobile & Tablet, Desktop “A unique and educational strategy game with a particle physics theme. Blending aspects from the tower defence and trading card game genres, players are able to place a variety of particles with different abilities and effects in order to destroy the enemy’s atom, and protect their own.”
Sundjata, the Lion of Mali
Keziah Zen-Aloush (17)
Mayfield, East Sussex Platform: Desktop, Console (PlayStation, Xbox)
Where’s My Tea?
Owen Hickman (18) Daniel Lee (18) Adam Mehta (18) Bradford, West Yorkshire Platform: Mobile & Tablet, Desktop
“RPG game based on a Malian epic “Diamonds fund empires but Tea story set in Mediaeval Mali where creates them. the player has to outwit an evil brother, a sorcerer king, wild animals Where’s my Tea? Is based in the and opposing armies to become era of colonial Britain, landmarking the first emperor of Mali. its vast empire. The twist is that the premise of the game resides within The game uses images based on space.” traditional Malian mud architecture, textiles, clothes, art, musical instruments and weapons. There are many ethnic groups living in the area where the story is set which covers today’s Mali, Ghana and Burkina Faso, so the game can draw on diverse inspiration.” 7
THE NOMINEES
GAME MAKING AWARD
10–14 YEARS
Alphabet Arc
Sam Curran (12) Tom Curran (14) Wilmslow CoderDojo Wilmslow, Cheshire Software: Scratch (1.4) “Arrange the alphabet as fast as you can and beat your PB ... a game for children with dyslexia developed by a dyslexic coder!
For the best original game made using freely available software
Da Platformer
Joel Cutler (13) Lucas Drayton (13) William Stoppard (13) Callington, Cornwall Software: Scratch “A challenged based platformer that has a twist. The basic idea is the platformer, you, are trying to escape the world that of which you are stuck in and you even leave the planet to try and be free from the red antiversion of yourself.”
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Doodle Warz
The player must put the 26 letters of the English alphabet in their correct order and into their correct place on an arc. The letters start being randomly placed inside the arc and playing against a timer the aim is to beat your own personal best, or play against others to see who can achieve the quickest time.”
Island of Illusions
Ariyan Hormoz (10)
George Whysall (12)
London Software: Corona SDK
Belper School Belper, Derbyshire Software: GameMaker 8.1
“You have to attack evil creatures to protect your village and keep your title as the great protector. You are a small stick man who shoots oversized arrows and you are protecting a village from evil glass of Water-men, if they reach the left side of the screen they destroy your village and you die.”
“8-bit addictive fun! You are a pirate and you have to make it through the 4 levels (maybe more) and hit the emerald treasure.”
Block Dash
Owais Hussain (12)
Clash of Steel
James Holley (13)
CyberPNK
Ealing, London Software: Scratch
Southend-on-Sea, Essex Software: Unity
Uckfield, East Sussex Software: Unity 5.5 in C#
“A unique puzzle platformer that will addict you for sure! It is an epic addicting puzzleplatformer with a unique way to play. All levels ARE possible! They are made and tested and edited to perfection!”
Leap in the Dark
“Use futuristic parts to create fighting machines to assert dominance over a planet. My game is an online MMO about building robots and fighting them in a persistent universe. The main point is that everything should be dynamic; you should be able to affect the universe in any way you want, and this will be reflected for other people.”
Meteor Mania
Spruce Campbell (12)
“An platforming adventure through a dangerous, corporate neon-glowing labyrinth with alternate realities Enjoy forever. Your friends persuade you to try this amazing new VR software they just cracked. Upon entering the ‘Hivemind’ you are accused of being a convicted criminal, sentenced to indefinite years in the game.”
Stealth
Alex Keller (14)
Jaime Williams (13)
Jamie Buttenshaw (14)
Sawston Village College Cambridge, Cambridgeshire Software: GameMaker:Studio 1.4
Glenrothes High School Glenrothes, Fife Software: Scratch
Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire Software: Python 3.4.3 & Pygame 1.9.2 in PyCharm, GIMP, Audacity and LMMS
“Move from side to side to avoid being exploded by falling 1-bit obstacles! Your character is constantly moving along the x axis, and when you tap it inverts your speed. The character’s y position stays constant. The aim of the game is to get the highest score possible while avoiding all the falling white blocks.”
“My game is an easy and strategic quick game that focuses on your timing skill. The goal of my game is to collect enough stars in the set time limit without hitting any meteors. Every level gets shorter and shorter, making it hard to collect enough stars in time.”
“Stealth is a challenging platforming adventure through an enemy occupied warehouse, and your goal is to infiltrate, destroy and escape the facility - but all without being caught! In Stealth, you are an MI6 agent sent into an enemy occupied warehouse, with the mission to destroy it.”
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CoSine
Aravind Prabhakaran (16) Abingdon, Oxford Software: Xcode, SpriteKit, Flash Animator, Sketch, Garageband, Audacity “A re-plastering of a mathematical concept into a beautiful 2D platformer that tests your reactions and co-ordination.
Defuse the Bomb: Wire Cut Rory Nickolls (17)
Fareham, Hampshire Software: Unity, Microsoft Visual Studio 2017, Adobe Photoshop CS3, Adobe Illustrator CS3, Audacity “Race against the clock to stop the bombs exploding! Are you fast enough?
In a simple clean geometric design the user controls what is in essence two waves, and by making them further apart or moving them up and down, they dodge obstacles and survive.”
Each bomb has a different configuration of wires that must be cut in the correct order to be defused. Each wire has a different colour, and the colour that must be cut next is shown by both the indicator at the top of the bomb and the background colour.”
Evade
Fractured Minds
Cumnor, Oxford Software: Unity Engine, Cinema4D+Photoshop, Audacity, LogicPro X
Watford, Hertfordshire Software: Unity, Autodesk Maya, Photoshop, Audacity
Adriano Matousek (17)
“Evade, Collide, Shatter, Repeat; test your endurance in this satisfyingly frustrating new fast paced action game! Tilt your phone to dodge incoming rocks and ‘evade’ the evil red enemies that chase you round relentlessly! You can collect powerups throughout the game to help you on your increasingly difficult journey!”
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Emily Mitchell (18)
Dimension Surfer
Jakub Dranczewski (18) Dulwich College, London Software: pygame (a Python library), Blender “A 2D platformer in which the levels are actually 3D and you can freely (and sometimes dramatically) change how the part you see on the screen looks just by moving your mouse slightly. The player is free to control the cutting plane used to obtain the cross-section displayed on the screen and therefore can completely change the geometry of the level, pass seemingly uncrossable obstacles and reach places that seemed out of reach a few seconds ago.”
Luge
Jack Chateau Loney (17) Thomas Crowe (18)
Milngavie, Glasgow “An immersive & provocative story Software: GameMaker / puzzle game that exposes the daily struggles of people living “A puzzle platformer where you play with anxiety and other (often as two detachable parts of your misunderstood) mental health issues. own body; arms and legs! Fractured Minds is an immersive puzzle game that uncovers the daily struggles of people living with anxiety or any mental health issue. It is designed to give the player a genuine insight into the experiences of those quietly living with mental illness – the feelings of isolation, of being trapped, of everyday situations being distorted beyond recognition.”
The main mechanics of the game revolve around arms and legs detaching from each other and using their different skills to help them complete the level. Arms cannot walk, making movement very limited. However, he can slide across ice and climb up on railings using’s his arms. He can also throw legs to other vantage points where legs can push buttons and move boxes to complete the level.”
THE NOMINEES
GAME MAKING AWARD
Dungeon Raiders Bartek Biszkont (17)
15–18 YEARS
Cambridge Regional College Red Lodge, West Suffolk Software: Clickteam Fusion 2.5 (Developer) “A platformer where you walk around randomly generated dungeons collecting weapons and items, fighting through enemies and bosses while also taking a huge risk the further you go as death means going back to the start. Randomly generated cave level with enemies that you must eliminate to complete the level. Scrolling action platformer with a range of weapons and wall jumps.”
Paradox
Ben Saunders (18) Cambridge Regional College Burwell, Cambridge Software: GameMaker
“You might think this is just a platformer, but it’s like nothing you’ve ever played before. You follow a character named Yin who travels around a world that is completely unknown. It is your goal to work out this unknown world and solve all of the problems to find your way to the end.”
For the best original game made using freely available software
Recalling Monochrome
Zacharie Sciamma (17) Avanes Khachaturov (17) David Khachaturov (17) King Edward VI Aston Grammar School, Birmingham, West Midlands “An intense, stylized top-down shooter that requires careful planning and on-point execution, with supernatural abilities and a noir story line.
Telepod
Ben Porter (15) Bristol Software: GameMaker Studio
“A FPS where you can teleport to wherever you fire your ‘TelePod’ to. You fall into an abandoned lab and must solve puzzles to escape using the TelePod or Teleportation Pod.”
Recalling Monochrome is set in New York, 1930. You are living paycheck to paycheck, trying to make ends meet by working as a private eye. The game features rather smart AI-infused enemies, that alert one another of the player’s position if they see you.” 11
THE NOMINEES
YGD MENTOR
The BAFTA YGD Mentor Award recognises individuals who have made an effort to inspire and mentor young people to learn more about programming and game design skills, in particular those who’ve helped young people that might not have had an opportunity to explore games creation otherwise.
Matthew Applegate Founder, Creative Computing Club, Suffolk “In 2012 I started to the Creative Computing Club in Ipswich, Suffolk with ten kids, now five years later I have worked with thousands of kids across Suffolk and I am about to launch the Creative Computing Club Charitable Foundation. The club helps young people learn coding and games design in an informal environment while the charity was set up to help young people (aged 11- 22) on low incomes buy computers if they are studying computer programming or video game design. ”
Sarah Bramley-Dymond The Redmaids’ High School for Girls, Bristol “My career and achievements can only really be evidenced through the accomplishments of my students. I am working in a leading role that has provided staff and students with the tools that has enabled them to take risks with their teaching and learning in a safe environment. Each day provides me with amazing learning experiences and this is what keeps me enthused and motivated enough to enjoy the fast pace of technical developments. ”
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Praise from a student: “This person has also helped me get my iGCSE in computer science and deserves to be named ygd (Young game designer) mentor 2017 because he has also helped many other people to achieve their iGCSEs in computer science. He runs gaming marathons to help local charities raise money to help them.” Praise from a parent: “Matthew has a real rapport with the young people in the group and especially those like my son who have autistic/Aspergers conditions. He has also mentored young designers through an iGCSE course to help them achieve entry grades for a Games Design Diploma and onwards to degree level.”
Praise from students: “Mrs B-D has been a huge source of support for not only me, but also the code club that she started at our school. From getting external speakers in to talk and inspire her students, to giving us a taste of what virtual reality can be, to embracing 4 hour train rides to allow us to participate in app and game development competitions, Mrs Bramley Dymond has been with us every step of the way.” “On the school VLE, she has put RSS feeds to tech companies like Wired so that we can stay up-to-date on all of the latest developments, and she organised the annual trip to the Wired Next Generation convention. Also, she has recently started up a school radio station with a team of students so that we can tune in to revision podcasts and tech updates.”
David Chilver Lowestoft Sixth Form College & Lowestoft Game Designers Club, Suffolk “I believe that I am a strong minded and organised teacher who is willing to put himself forward and make decisions that are in the best interest of the students. I have seen the transformative power of education on young people’s lives and I will work tirelessly to make sure that the education of my students is second to none.”
David Renton
Praise from a colleague: “Dave understands the psychology of gameplay which he distils into great lessons. He tells students the best way to design a good game is to design 10 bad ones. By narrowing their focus and designing achievable goals I believe that Dave’s students have a better understanding of why games work rather than simply how they’re coded.” “Dave has helped local schools develop their own Games curriculum by creating the Lowestoft Young Game Designers. This encourages students to enter the BAFTA competition but also to have their work reviewed by the University of Suffolk. The best entries will also be featured at the Norwich Gaming Festival.”
Praise from a colleague:
Curriculum & Quality Leader for Computing, West College Scotland, Renfrewshire, Scotland “This year my focus has been on encouraging games development for Virtual Reality and engaging not just with schoolchildren, but especially with girls to encourage them into taking up games development. As part of that I have been involved with STEM initiatives to encourage more girls into STEM subjects (especially Computer Science) & careers through organisations such as STEMnet, Microsoft, College Development Network, SDS and others.”
“He is always looking for ways to make sure his students have as many opportunities as possible. Most recently he has been working with students to encourage them to run coding clubs in local schools to teach the children how to make games.” “By working with David he has inspired me to push myself at work and outside of work by also working with the students and the clubs and encouraging me with my own clubs that I run as well as my game jams which he has been speaking at.”
Julia Sutherland Great Walstead School, West Sussex “I have a rule in my computer suites – all games played must be made by the children. Scratch, Kodu, Small Basic, Alice, Greenfoot and Python have all been used in order to create games. I have been teaching Scratch for many years and am always amazed by what the children produce.” Praise from a current student: “Julia (or Mrs Sutherland as I knew her) gave me, and is giving hundreds of other students, every opportunity possible during the time we spent and
spend at prep school to get into game development. She is wholly passionate about IT and game development, and is always aching to find new ways to get people interested in games and technology.” Praise from a past student: “She was incredibly passionate about teaching pupils not only to code, but also introducing them to other software which could aid the development of games, such as photo editing software and 3D modelling software. She was also incredibly dedicated and set up a club where students could go to develop games, ranging from games made in Scratch and Microsoft Small Basic, to those made in Unity.” 13
YGD INDUSTRY HERO UNITY TECHNOLOGIES
This year we have awarded our YGD Hero Award to Unity Technologies. Unity Technologies is the creator of a flexible and high-performance end-to-end development platform used to create rich interactive 2D, 3D, VR and AR experiences. Unity’s powerful graphics engine and fullfeatured editor serve as the foundation to develop beautiful games or apps and easily bring them to multiple platforms: mobile devices, home entertainment systems, personal computers, and embedded systems. Unity Technologies serves millions of registered developers including large publishers, indie studios, students and hobbyists around the globe. Unity for Education is dedicated to supporting the many students working towards a career in games, and the educators that teach the valuable skills that will enable students to achieve their goals and become the successful creators of tomorrow. Free personal licenses for students and curricular framework for instructors are available to download from www.unity3d.com.
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Unity also offers solutions and services for creating games, boosting productivity, and connecting with audiences including Unity Ads, Unity Analytics, Unity Asset Store, Unity Cloud Build, Unity Collaborate, Unity Connect and Unity Certification.
“We are very grateful to BAFTA for this recognition. At Unity, we believe every young person should have the opportunity to learn how to become a creator, and not just a consumer, of technology. That’s why we invest so deeply in building a powerful and flexible engine that makes young people’s dreams a reality.” Jessica Lindl Global Head of Education at Unity
BAFTA YGD would not be possible without the generous backing of our partners. From offering amazing prizes, funding for learning materials and outreach work, participating in our judging panels and upcoming video series, their support has been invaluable. BAFTA YGD is held in association with
“Nominet Trust are delighted to support BAFTA Young Game Designers for the third consecutive year. It’s a great opportunity for young people up and down the country to take part in, and be inspired by the games industry and for the sector itself to ignite an interest in STEM careers. Once again, we’ve been overwhelmed by the creativity and thrilled to see a sustained increase in the number of entries from girls.” Chris Ashworth Programme Director at Nominet Trust www.nominettrust.org.uk
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Criterion “Helping young people to be digital creators is a mission that Electronic Arts and Criterion Games are proud to support. We are passionate about inspiring, supporting, educating and working with a new generation of gamemakers. Working with BAFTA YGD is something we have done for the past four years and we are very happy to be involved again. We always feel truly inspired when we work with young people as they bring a fresh perspective and such great energy and enthusiasm.”
Jagex “YGD continues to be an excellent opportunity for young people to experience a sliver of what the ‘real’ games industry has to offer. By taking part, these budding game designers get to rub shoulders with industry professionals, an utterly priceless experience as they begin to work towards their careers!”
King “We’re proud to be sponsoring this years’ Young Game Designer’s award in association with BAFTA, and hope to inspire the younger generation by giving them greater insight into the wide range of career opportunities available within the gaming industry. At King, we’re passionate about making games and harnessing the talent and creativity of young people. This partnership with BAFTA enables us to help in developing the knowledge and skills needed by the younger generation, so that they can to play their part in revolutionizing one of the fastest growing industries in the world.”
SEGA
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“SEGA is delighted to once again support the BAFTA YGD initiative and in turn, support innovative young games developers in their creative endeavours. YGD is a glimpse into the future of British video game development and SEGA is looking forward to seeing what these talented youngsters come up with now and in the future.”
Sony Computer Entertainment “Being part of the BAFTA YGD program offers a terrific opportunity to connect with the next generation of game creators. At Sony Interactive Entertainment, we’re actively shaping the future of game development education through our PlayStation First academic program, putting PlayStation into the hands of young, up-and-coming developers. We’re delighted to partner with BAFTA once again and help usher in a new wave of talent.”
Ubisoft “We’re delighted to be supporting this year’s BAFTA Young Game Designers Awards. The future of the games industry lies in the hands of budding new talent, and it is awards like the YGD that give them a fantastic platform to showcase their incredible skills.”
Unity “YGD encourages young designers to think about the processes involved in making the commercial games they play. Using that knowledge and their imagination they can come up with something new and personal. The design of YGD to include both coding and design means the less technical can still contribute. Studios need people with different skills – not everyone is a killer coder.”
WB Games UK “We’re proud to be a BAFTA YGD industry partner. Investing in the next generation of creative talent is vital to the future of the industry: that’s why, through this programme – and Warner Bros. Creative Talent – we are working in partnership with BAFTA to support upcoming talent.”
Acknowledgements With Thanks To
For BAFTA
Hosts Georgie Barrat Dev Griffin
Director of Learning & Events Tim Hunter
Script Anthony Richardson Set Design Tom Denning Set Install Crew 4 Camera Operators Jonathan Dibley Darren Lovell John Maloney Tom Seal Suzanne Smith
Director of Production Clare Brown YGD Campaign Producer Melissa Phillips Production Team Georgina Cunningham Ryan Doherty Cassandra Hybel Ciara Teggart Projection Team Tim Higham Angus Martin
Prompting Facilities Portaprompt
Editing Daniel Dalton Trey Farley
Photographers Hannah Hutchins Mollie Rose Skeffington
Press Niyi Akeju Eleanor Pickering
Printing Taylor Bloxham
Communications Emma Raczkowski Jess Lenten
Publicity Hopscotch Consulting Johanna Hatch
Official Partners Nominet Trust Criterion Jagex Sony Computer Entertainment Europe SEGA Ubisoft Unity Warner Bros. University of Abertay Dundee
Juries With thanks to all readers, jury members, chairs and 195 Piccadilly Photography on pages 4-5 c/o BAFTA/ Alan Richardson, Liverpool Girl Geeks/ Gemma Montgomery
Partnerships Sam D’Elia Laura Kloss Charlie Perkin Graphic Design Joe Lawrence Additional Support Jordan Anderson Luke Botham Alexa Tamsett Lizzie Warham British Academy of Film and Television Arts 195 Piccadilly, London W1J 9LN T: 020 7734 0022 F: 020 7292 5869 www.bafta.org Head of Games Committee Nick Button-Brown Chair Jane Lush Chief Executive Amanda Berry OBE
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