Katrina, Sophia & Rin win BAFTA for Game Concept!

Huge congratulations goes to Sophia (Year 11), Katrina (Year 11) and Rin (Year 12) for winning a Game Concept BAFTA for their innovative new idea, Tea & Tartlets.

The girls, along with 37 other finalists, had the chance to attend the Young Game Designers awards ceremony at BAFTA 195 on London's Piccadilly last Saturday, where the shortlisted games were on show. Hosts Aoife Wilson and Julia Hardy were joined by actor Abubakar Salim and presenter Alysia Judge, as well as Ninja Theory's Tameem Antoniades. Sophie, Katrina and Rin share their experiences below...

What did the competition entail?
Sophia: The competition, as the name suggests, is for game design where Rin, Kat and I had to create a game concept and explain all of it's theoretical games mechanics, atmosphere etc. - essentially creating an image of what the game could be like. Kat mostly wrote the information and details while I created art and Rin composed music. It's been a great experience.

How did you come up with your idea?
Kat: We actually came up with a concept for the game about a year ago, though weren't sure what kind of media we would develop it into. We had all ended up going over to my house and baking (a lot), one of the items we baked being 'tartlets', which are essentially just tiny tarts. We really just thought the name 'tartlets' was cute and wanted to make some kind of cafe-themed piece of media based around them, then were suggested to take part in the competition and ended up here.

Do you do much gaming yourselves?
Sophia: Kat probably does the most gaming, Rin does somewhat too, and I do a decent amount myself as well! It's an area we all enjoy and so naturally we all really liked trying to design a game ourselves.

How can we encourage more young women into the industry?
Rin: I think that actually there is a lack of knowledge within around this career path as it is so different to what most girls are told to strive for. I think that to be able to encourage more women down this career path, we need to break the stereotypical perspective on how women, mostly focusing on teenaged girls, should be viewed and show them that its okay to be different and unique; encouraging them to follow their own path, whatever that may be.