YGD Mentor Award

Harry Petch, Abertay University

Harry is currently studying at Abertay University completing his first year Game Design and Production BA Hon. Harry has twice been a finalist for the BAFTA Young Games Designer competition in the Games Making category in 2016 and 2019. Whilst in Sixth Form at Oakwood Park Grammar School, Harry set up two games development clubs for Years 7-8 and Years 9-11, creating a safe space for games designing, proving successful with a total of eight students becoming finalists for Games Making and Concept awards through BAFTA YGD. Constantly working on his craft, Harry communicates regularly with previous YGD finalists via Discord to share learnings and teachings to help improve his practice and sessions within the school.

Richard Harris, Head of Design, Raynes Park High School

Richard is Head of Design at Raynes Park High School and believes that as a teacher, it is his role to make learning fun. Initiating illustration workshops for the students, Richard was able to demonstrate how characters are designed for games and uploaded using various online tools and in person techniques to engage his students. Richard led a vast range of STEM clubs and introduced game design into the main curriculum, where he curated a retro Gameboy exhibition to demonstrate that simple games can make a significant impact and, in turn, empowered his students to create a diverse selection of games. Richard has established connections with businesses such as Apple and the National Video Game Museum creating opportunities for learning and future work placements.

Dan Clark, MindJam

Dan created MindJam; a service which provides online help for children suffering with their mental health through gaming and game design, providing an outlet to talk through problems and anxieties, learn new skills and practice positivity. Activities such as gaming, coding, game creation, digital art and music are proven stress relievers and help the students develop confidence. As a teacher for 20 years, Dan has experience working with children and specialises in supporting children with ASD, ADHD, Trauma, PDA, anxiety, stress and social issues. Dan works all over the country with schools, councils, and mental health services and is part of Autism Champions acting as Emotional Support and Gaming Consultant. He has connected with industry giants such as Media Molecule to inspire his students, and promote the use of Dreams and other game creation platforms within schools.

Gregor Manby, East London Arts and Music

Gregor is a teacher at East London Arts and Music teaching Game Design and Development enabling Sixth Form students to achieve Level 3 Extended Diploma’s awarded by University of Arts London. He champions respect, teamwork and collaboration in his practice, championing the introduction of underrepresented demographics to gaming and a future in the industry, particularly women whom he feels are not as represented in the field of games designing and creation. Gregor is also an advocate for promoting cross subject collaborations with Music and Film & TV students. Gregor has also externally
supported UKIEs Digital Schoolhouse initiative as well as promoting online learning for other companies

Mr. Matthew Applegate, Creative Computing Club, Suffolk

For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated by what can be achieved through the medium of video games. I have been fortunate to work for some of the biggest tech and games companies in the world on a number of products and I take that experience into the classroom to help the next generation of game designers and programmers.

Mr. Matthew Guest, Head of Computing, Summerhill School, Kingswinford, West Midlands

I created a game creator’s club based around the BAFTA YGD awards, however as the 2018 deadline was just a few months later, we decided to continue through and enter the 2019 Awards. The number of students in the club grew month by month and following the new year 7 intake in September 2018 the numbers rose to over 50 children – I had to run the club in 2 separate sessions. To truly engage a young person and to give them the most beneficial experience possible, it is essential to get support from the professionals. It was at this point I enlisted the help of a Games Designer from Codemasters, called Gav. We arranged a Skype session together with the students where Gav gave a great insight into his job, how to get a career in the industry and invaluable tips for their YGD entries. There was standing room only for the skype call, it was a great success. We are planning more in the future.

Ocean Spark Studios (Ellie Brown, Helen Andrzejowska & Zach Cundall), Huddersfield

Ocean Spark Studios is a video game development studio that has a strong focus on inspiring the younger generation of games design students. Constantly striving to enlighten not only children but parents too, about the opportunities within the games industry. Throughout the time of the business, the team have found several families from low-income backgrounds who would have no other way of having a chance to get involved in something like this.