BAFTA has announced the winners of its 11th annual Young Game Designers (YGD) competition, which aims to spotlight and celebrate some of the best and brightest emerging talent in the UK games industry.
51 finalists competed for the Game Concept Award and Game Making Award across the 10-14 and 15-18 age categories this year, and were eventually whittled down to four winners by virtual juries chaired by Dr. Jo Twist OBE, Jodie Azhar, Claire Boissiere, and Des Gayle.
Habiballah Butt took home the Game Concept Award (10-14 years category) for their work on Rewind, a 3D landscape game designed to help people understand the stages of grief. Andrew Ah-Weng was handed the Game Making Award (10-14 years category) for creating Getting Out Of It, a 2D title that asks players to escape a claustrophobic underground world using only a jetpack and a rope.
In the 15-18 years category, Harry Rimmer was honored with the Game Concept Award for dreaming up the time-travelling whodunnit, Wish You Were Here!, and finally Sara Szasz nabbed the Game Making Award for their project Thoughtless, which sees players take on the role of a detective searching for their lost uncle.
All four winners will now be given the opportunity to build on their initial ideas through a mentorship scheme, and will also receive other prizes including access to workshops, masterclasses, networking opportunities, and games.
Those interested can check out the full list of BAFTA YDG nominees, which includes a sprawling array of projects made in Unity, Unreal, GameMaker 2, Dreams, and more, by clicking right here.