The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has announced the list of finalists for its Young Game Designers competition. A total of 51 young people aged 10 to 18 have been selected from hundreds of participants. They compete in two categories: Game Concept Award, for the most original idea, and Game Making Award, which rewards playable prototypes created with free software. Each category has groups for ages 10-14 and 15-18.
Code and creativity: the engine of youth development 🎮
The division into two categories aims to balance creative spark with technical solidity. While the Game Concept Award evaluates originality and documented development of an idea, the Game Making Award requires a functional prototype, using free tools such as Unity, Godot, or Scratch. This allows young people without resources to access video game creation. For the jury, good design does not depend on budget, but on game logic and the implementation of basic mechanics.
The jury is looking for ideas, not to fix their printer 😅
The funny thing is, while some adults still think programming is a thing for bearded wizards, these 10-year-old kids are already designing levels and scoring systems. If only they had the same patience to teach their parents how to connect the WiFi. But hey, if they manage to make a prototype work without crashing, they already have more merit than half of this year's triple-A releases.