Acton Brothers Make BAFTA Games Finals
Competition for concept and design for young games makers
Two brothers from Acton have made it to the finals of BAFTA Young Game Designers Competition.
Young people aged 10-18 years submitted designs and concepts addressing a wide range of issues including mental health, climate change, conservation, disability, bereavement, and transgender rights.
Entries also included adventures, imaginary kingdoms, quests, and puzzles demonstrating impressive planning, creativity and ingenuity.
Alex (12) and Max Robertson (14) beat off stiff competition to make the final 53 who have worked individually or in teams to submit one of the 40 entries.
Max’s game, which is called ‘LASERASE: Demolition in the future’, is a demolition puzzle game where the player uses a mirror to reflect a laser at targets to blow them up and avoid lethal TNT.
Alex’s game, which is called ‘Far-fetched Phantoms’, is set in a haunted mansion where players encounter multiple phantoms that try to extinguish their light. Players use their magical far-fetched powers to deflect phantoms.
Max and Alex’s father Michael Robinson is delighted about the boys both being selected and said:
"We are thrilled that Alex and his brother Max have both made it into the final 10.This is both brothers' fourth submission to the BAFTA YGD competition. The process of taking a game from concept to completion has been an education, teaching them a lot of new skills. Having a competition to provide a structure and incentive for those efforts has been invaluable."
Another Ealing finalist is 17 year old Elizabeth Orji-Smith, whose game ‘Creatively Bankrupt” is an action role player game about a small animation crew turned part-time robin hood heist group! Can they unlock the vault that holds the creative bounty?
Elizabeth, who is delighted to have been selected, said: “It’s wild thinking I made it this far. I never entertained the thought that my idea would be seen as a viable game idea by a group of professionals in the industry.”
Dr. Jo Twist OBE, Chair of Games Committee at BAFTA, said: “Games are a fantastic art form for creators to express themselves, and I am delighted to see young people tackling important topics through their design and concept entries this year. Their creativity and ambition for social change through the medium of games is inspiring. A very well deserved congratulations and good luck to all the 2019 finalists!”
Finalists will be competing for the Game Concept Award, which recognises a paper-based written game idea, and the Game Making Award for those who have developed their coding skills and submitted a prototype game made using freely available software. The finalists worked on their entries in a variety of ways, including individually, within a team at school, through coding clubs, or at home with friends and family.
The annual BAFTA Young Game Designers (YGD) competition, which began in 2010, aims to demonstrate the creativity that goes in to game design and give young people, and their teachers, an understanding of the rewarding careers available within the industry.
The awards ceremony will be held on June 29th.
May 22nd 2019