Yorkshire Games Festival
British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to partner on 5-day event
Wednesday, 18th April, 2018, Bradford, UK: After two successful editions celebrating the diverse world of games from within the UK’s National Science and Media Museum in the heart of Bradford, we’re excited to announce that the Yorkshire Games Festival will return for a momentous third outing in early 2019.
The five day event will run from Wednesday 6th February through to Sunday 10th February and will play host to a number of firsts for the festival, including a brand new and prized partnership with BAFTA designed to foster games development amongst the industry’s youngest and brightest stars.
During the festival BAFTA will host a range of events to promote the BAFTA Young Game Designers competition, which aims to inspire the UK’s game creators of the future by giving young people the chance to design and make their own game. Activity will include game concept workshops for 10-14-year-olds and 15-18-year-olds, guidance workshops for parents and teachers, and panel discussions about careers in the games industry.
This year, Yorkshire Games Festival can also announce that the legendary Jeff Minter of Llamasoft fame – the UK developer behind the classic 1980s games Gridrunner and Attack of the Mutant Camels, Xbox Live Arcade’s celebrated Space Giraffe, the mesmerising PlayStation Vita game TxK and most recently the mind-bending PlayStation VR title Polybius – will be attending and speaking. Jeff will be taking to the stage to talk about his incredible 30-year career, the landmark games and technology and the making of his forthcoming game Tempest 4000 for publisher Atari.
Minter is the first major name inked in for the event, with further announcements unveiling other fellow industry legends planned for the months ahead. According to Festival Director, Kathryn Penny, 2019’s event is going to build on the foundations of last year’s extravaganza, which saw 9,000 attendees head for National Science and Media Museum. That was a 15 percent jump on the inaugural year’s figures.
“It’s amazing what the Yorkshire Games Festival has achieved in just two years – 2017 really felt like a landmark year, with the line-up of acclaimed speakers helping to cement the festival as a crucial event in the games industry’s calendar,” offers Penny. “We want to continue inspiring people just starting out in their careers – or, indeed, students still studying their craft. I know the new partnership with BAFTA, plus talks from Jeff Minter and many other industry luminaries means we’ll be doing just that.”
As Penny suggests, 2019’s festival will be designed to build on the range of speakers who made their mark on the first two events.
“We’ve had acclaimed games writers like Martin Korda talk about Destiny 2 and Rhianna Pratchett discuss Lara Croft; TT Games’ head of design Arthur Parsons, Ninja Theory’s Dominic Matthews, and designer Brenda Romero – just to name a few – on stage at the Yorkshire Games Festival,” continues Penny. “We’ve set the bar high, but we’re ready to raise it again.”
2019 sees the Yorkshire Games Festival build upon its remit to celebrate games culture and introduce a new generation to the science and art of games development. Look out for further details on confirmed speakers and additional themes and events in the coming months.
ABOUT THE YORKSHIRE GAMES FESTIVAL
The Yorkshire Games Festival showcases some great talent and titles from across the video games spectrum. Talent comes from the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford, Yorkshire, in partnership with games business network Game Republic.
The festival is designed to provide gamers and budding game makers unrivalled access to the industry. It offers insights into all aspects of the games industry from award winning studios, and hosting live shows and events showcasing a wealth of games and activities.
The Yorkshire Games Festival also dedicates a day to school groups, aiming to inspire people of all ages and backgrounds to engage with the many aspects of video game design, development and coding.
