Celebrating 15 years of BAFTA Young Game Designers

Kick starting a career in the creative industries takes passion and determination and as our Young BAFTA programmes show you’re never too young to start chasing your dreams. So, as 2025 marks 15 years of BAFTA Young Game Designers we’re looking back at the lasting impact of the programme.

Since 2010, the YGD competition has given young people passionate about games the chance to showcase their talent and kickstart their dream careers. Whether they’ve got a great idea for a new game concept or are a whizz at making games, YGD is the place for young people aged 10-18 to get creative and embrace their imagination.

By impressing the judges with their design, creativity and the suitability of their game on their chosen platform, winners get access to exclusive mentoring and masterclasses from industry experts. They’re also welcomed into a unique network of YGD alumni of aspiring game designers and makers. As the winners of 2025’s competition have been announced, it’s the perfect time to catch up with some previous YGD finalists and winners who have made their dreams of working in the games industry a reality.

Taking part in Young Game Designers has led finalists and winners to form a community of budding game creators. Dan Pearce, who entered and won YGD in its first year in 2010, has seen this alumni network grow over the past 15 years. He says, “it’s really incredible seeing developers forge those connections and exchange knowledge.”

Rhianna Hawkins, who won YGD in 2014, says: “I’ve been able to meet a really warm community of amazing people” through entering the competition. Harry Petch, a finalist in the Game Making category in 2016 and 2019, describes YGD as “the first time I got to meet a lot of new friends who had the same passions as I did, which as someone who wanted to develop games, there wasn’t a lot of people like that back in my day at school.” Joe Straker reflects on being in a Zoom call with fellow YGD finalists in 2020 and remembers realising “I wasn’t the only one that was incredibly nerdy and passionate about making game concepts and ideas and just a massive nerd about game design. It made me feel very welcomed and very part of a community.”

For Ayo Norman-Williams, being part of this community of games designers and makers helped him to push forward with his career in “an industry that can feel so isolated when you’re on your own, working in your room, cracking away at a project.” He says, “knowing there’s a bunch of people like you who are working towards the same things that you’re working on, that’s really motivating.”

Crafting a YGD entry is an opportunity to creatively express yourself and build key skills. Tyler Rotheram, who was a finalist in 2019, says that entering YGD “helped me learn how to write up and conceptualise ideas and execute that in a pitch format.” Norman-Williams entered the competition in 2016 and 2017 before becoming a finalist in 2018. Entering each year drove him to “drill in on my game design skills and improve myself year after year. With every unsuccessful entry that I put into the competition, I really felt motivated to continue learning and bettering myself.”

Becoming a YGD finalist also offers the opportunity to receive mentoring and advice from industry experts. Rotheram says that YGD “helped me get the critique and mentorship I needed to keep on improving from that stage.” And Petch looks back fondly on attending the Showcase at BAFTA’s London HQ, where he was “able to talk and get to know some industry professionals and learn about the different roles in games.” Something which gave him the opportunity to “figure out that game mechanic design was something that I really wanted to do.”

For some previous winners and finalists, entering Young Game Designers made them realise that a career in games is possible. Hawkins reflects, “Since I was 11 years old, I knew I wanted to make games but didn’t really know how to go about doing it. Being nominated showed that my ideas had potential and that if I wanted to, someday I could become a game designer.” Before entering YGD, Straker was “stuck in the mindset that I’d have to go into tech and games would just be a long distant pipe dream.” But YGD “helped build my confidence in public speaking, in meeting new people, in talking to people that were in the games industry and seeing that this is a viable career,” he says.

From setting up their own game studios, gaining experience on major franchises including Fable and Need for Speed, to premiering a project at the COP 26 climate conference, YGD’s alumni have experienced a range of careers across the games industry. They’ve even gone on to work on BAFTA-nominated and winning games. Pearce’s Castles in the Sky received a nomination for Debut Game in 2014, and Rotheram was a Game Designer on Tales of Kenzera: ZAU, which won Game Beyond Entertainment at the 2025 BAFTA Games Awards.

The next generation of game designers are out there, and perhaps you could be a part of it. As Hawkins reflects, “No matter how big or small your idea is, you should enter [YGD] as you never know what’s going to happen.” Cameryn Tuliao, winner in the Game Concept category in 2015, echoes this. They say that if “you have a passion for games and maybe you don’t know how to code yet, maybe you just want to create a concept or something like that, you should always apply… It might just change your entire life.”

Entries for the 2026 BAFTA Young Game Designers competition open later this year. In the meantime get inspired by taking a look at the 2025 winners and check out the website for more information.