In July 2010, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) launched a new initiative highlighting the creative possibilities and career opportunities within the ever popular video games market via its very own BAFTA Young Game Designers competition.
Teams consisting of three young people aged 11-16 from the across the UK were invited to submit a design for a new video game. The aims of the competition were to promote creativity, help young people understand the different roles within video game design and highlight the key subject areas for entry into the industry.

With all entries submitted by the closing date of 18 October 2010, a group of industry specialists joined the Young Game Designer’s Celebrity Ambassador, Harry Potter star Matthew Lewis, to judge the best ten competition entries that had progressed through two previous rounds of judging. Jury head, General Manager of EA Bright Light and Deputy Chair of BAFTA’s Children’s Committee, Harvey Elliott, was joined by jurors including Johnny Minkley, video games journalist for BBC Radio 1 and Eurogamer, Sam Dickinson, Designer on the BAFTA Award-winning PSP game LittleBigPlanet, and Jonathan Smith, Head of Production at TT Games Publishing.

The jurors reviewed and debated the short list of ten competition entries and individually assessed and marked each entry against the criteria of Game-play, Innovation/Originality and Creativity. After much deliberation, three nominated teams were selected: Blazing Chickens and its game entitled Born Dreaming, Hexadecimal with the game i-Volution and Beached Whale Productions and the game HAMSTER: accidental world domination.

The three nominated teams will attend the annual, star-studded British Academy Children’s Awards in association with EA, this year taking place on Sunday 28 November at the Hilton, Park Lane, London, where the winning team will be announced.

BAFTA is partnering with the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA), Abertay University and EA in order to deliver the competition.

The winning team will receive a truly unique prize package that includes a BAFTA Young Game Designers Award, work experience at EA games studio Bright Light (during which they will continue to develop their game’s concept) and the chance to develop a prototype of the winning game with Abertay University. All entrants, including the winning team, will retain the right to take their games to any studio in order to develop them commercially.

Commenting on the competition, jury chair Harvey Elliott says: “The quality in this first year has been very high. All of us have been incredibly impressed by the standard of the entries. The depth of thought that has gone into them is up there with the best in the industry.”

Jury member Jonathan Smith, Head of Production at TT Games Publishing, says: “It was a tough judging process, but three titles really stood out, where their teams had gone beyond anyone’s exceptions to deliver game designs that were creative, really fresh, and actually credible from a technical perspective of making a fun game that people would want to play – hugely impressive.”

Celebrity Ambassador Matthew Lewis says: “All the entries were unbelievable. Everyone has done a fantastic job. It’s a shame that we can only have one winner as I would like to see all three made into video games.”

The Nominated Teams

Born Dreaming
A game in which, just before you go to sleep, you need to find items to help you survive the dream world you are about to enter.

Team name: Blazing Chickens

• Rae Elias (Age 16, Manager and Idea generator)
• Josh Girardi (Age 15, Illustrator and Idea generator)
• Aaron Lewis (Age 16, Co-illustrator and Idea generator)

Team Blazing Chickens live near Aberystwyth in Ceredigion, Wales. They designed their RPG game for the PS3. The jurors found the subject matter very original and were impressed not only with the artwork and design of the dream world, but also with the fact that players were able to store points when they were awake to help them fight during the night.

i-Volution
Play a robot in a hostile environment, which has to adapt to survive.

Team name: Hexadecimal

• Matt Gilbert (Age 14, Writer, Designer)
• Ben Brooks (Age 14, Level Editor, Designer)
• James Weller (Age 14, GUI Designer, Designer)

Team Hexadecimal from Swindon, Wiltshire, designed their game i–Volution for the PC. The story follows a worker who suspects that his building is manufacturing something sinister and creates a robot to investigate. The jurors related to the very current storyline and absolutely loved the different character names in the game.

HAMSTER: accidental world domination
Players have to help the hamster hero rescue the princess from the villainous Sir Purs A lot.
Team name: Beached Whale Productions

• Dan Pearce (Age 16, Game Director, Executive Gameplay Designer, Concept Artist, Senior Writer)
• Sam Taylor (Age 16, Producer, Executive Artist)
• James Cook (Age 12, Senior Gameplay Designer, Level Designer, Executive Writer)

Team Beached Whales Productions from Maidenhead, Berkshire, designed their game for the Nintendo DS. The judging panel found the characterisation and design of the game very funny and felt that this was a game people would want to play again and again.