BAFTA announces 7th Young Game Designers competition

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) is calling for entries for the 2017 BAFTA Young Game Designers competition. The competition is aiming to inspire a new generation of game creators and designers by giving youths the chance to design and make their own game, before having this idea further developed by professionals.

BAFTA’s YGD competition is part of a year-round program that aims to give young people and educators an insight into the games industry, and also provide access to some of the people behind their favourite titles.

It’s all part of BAFTA’s commitment to the games industry, as the games sector makes a significant contribution the UK both in terms of culture, but also because of the £2.96bn spent on video games in the UK over the course of 2016.

This is the 7th year of the BAFTA YGD competition, and the winners will be named at a special awards ceremony at the BAFTA headquarters in Piccadilly. Successful entrants will have their game concepts furthered with professional assistance and mentoring from games professionals, in addition to several other prizes.

You can find out more about the contest and enter here, but the competition has been designed so that young people can enter in their own time or during a school lesson or coding club with the help of an educator.

Tim Hunter, Director of Learning and New Talent at BAFTA, said: “The BAFTA YGD competition is a great way for young people to explore their creativity and the craft of game design. Not only are students given the opportunity to design their own game, but to receive direct feedback from industry professionals and are able to see their idea be made into a reality. Each year, our finalists demonstrate just how much young talent is out there which makes us feel very optimistic about the future of the games industry