Film, Games and TV arts charity BAFTA is supporting two Derby teenagers’ first step into computer game creation.
James Schaffer, 17, a student at Derby Grammar School, and Harrison Green, 16, a former pupil at the school, reached the final of the 2023 BAFTA Young Game Designers Competition.
As a result, they will get 12 months’ support from the organisation, helping create connections and find mentors in the games industry.
Their game has also been uploaded on to the BAFTA website for people to download and play.
For James, who began creating computer games on his dad’s laptop during lockdown, it is the start of something he hopes could turn his hobby into a career.
“I want to definitely have a career in programming, I don’t know yet if that will be in game development, though I would really like for that but it’s one area of a very big industry,” said James, from Chellaston in Derby.
He is currently in Year 12, studying for A-Levels in Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Computer Science, and heard about the competition from his computer teacher John Speight.
James started coding at the library Code Club when he was 11, and has been volunteering there to teach the children for the last eight months.
James had entered other game jam competitions in the past, which challenge entrants to design games in a short time frame but had never put himself forward for anything on the scale of the BAFTA competition.
Mr Speight said: “Demand for programmers and digital artists in the UK Game Industry is growing extremely quickly, and we are adapting our curriculum at Derby Grammar School to meet this demand in the classroom.”
He added the school was proud of the students’ achievements and James’ continued support for others with an interest in programming at the school.
Mr Speight added: “James’ achievement is already inspiring and serving as an example to students in computing activities and lessons.”
Harrison began working on the game with James in December last year during the Christmas holidays.
Programming is something I want to go into as a career,” said Harrison from Belper. “After my A-levels I’d like to go to university to study Computer Science with AI and pursue a programming career.”
James and Harrison entered the BAFTA’s Game Making category for 15 to 18 year-olds. There were over 500 entries into the competition with four categories and 10 finalists in each category.
The voting jury who selected this year’s finalists represented major British-based gaming companies, including Rocksteady Studios (Batman: Arkham Asylum), Rare Ltd (Battletoads) and TT Games (LEGO® Star Wars™: The Skywalker Saga).
Their game, called Escape the Darkness, brings together a puzzle game concept – solving clues – together with the currently popular horror game genre, with games such as Portal 2.
In the 2D game, the player is a security guard at a facility. As the only living being left and in a building which is overrun by a darkness, the guard must find out what has happened and how he can stay alive.
James said the idea came quickly but that he had some challenges with certain aspects of the programming.
“The concept of the game came quite easily, and the initial development was not particularly difficult because we had game making experience in the past. There were a couple of things I had to learn how to do, such as how to make the torch and the darkness interact. One of the key parts of the game is that when the security guard shines the torch on the darkness, it goes away and that keeps him alive, so he has to keep the torch working, getting that interaction right was quite tricky to get working.”
They will both get to attend the BAFTA headquarters in London in July to private and public demonstrations of their game and will get to meet industry experts and mentors.
James said: “The BAFTA support I will receive for the next year will also provide us with mentors to talk through our ideas and there will also be a social media group of finalists so we can stay in touch, which will be great.”
