2026 Young Game Designers: 'Game Concept' Finalists

The 2026 Young BAFTA Game Concept Award finalists have been revealed. So, get ready to take a peek and be inspired.

Finalists in the category for 10-14 years old game concept are; Animal Roller Coaster Archers, Beyond the Horizon, Dive, Head in the Stars, Necromechania: The City Within, Nobody Nose, Olividado Estrella, Paper Detective, Pixel-Man and Wonder Forest.

Finalists in the category for 15-18 years old game concept are; Aasuri, Beyond Woe, Bread on the run, Create or Die, Dead Man’s Language, Dreams of the Drowsy, Echoes in the dark, The Last Thing the World Forgot, Sprouts and Seedlings, and Tailbreak.

Game Concept Award: 10 - 14 years old

A black and white pencil drawing. Running through the middle is a rollercoaster track and around it are a rollercoaster cart and some archers.

Animal Roller Coaster Archers - Ben Noyce

A fast-paced roller coaster game where you play as an animal flying through inversions and soaring over targets, shooting down balloons with your bow and arrow.

A series of images, clockwise from top left; a blue planet 'Planet B47' on a starry background, three trees with pink leaves labelled 'one of the 4 moors' and 'forest', three 'alien species' faces - one green, one blue and one purple, and three people labelled Natalia, Alice and Daniel all dressed in black with green tanks on their backs.

Beyond the Horizon - Rikka Mellersh

An astronaut is alone on a strange planet, her teammates must find her before they run out of the green gel that sustains them - and defeat the hostile plants and animals trying to kill them first.

A pen drawing of a big blue whale with mouth open swallowing a person and some fish. Above the waterline behind the whale is an island with a green dinosaur on it.

Dive - Ben Batstone

An underwater exploration game with diverse bosses in their respective biomes. Each has different mechanics such as a hunger, hydration and oxygen bar - all of which drain over time, eventually killing you if any of the bars run out.

A computer pixel style image with lots of different coloured characters on it and the words 'Head in the Stars'.

Head in the Stars - Alexei Trafford-Horan

An adventure through an alternate world created by ancient powerful beings. Your role as the player is to go through multiple areas of this world as an explorer in a quest to discover the sinister plot unfolding within it.

A black and white pencil drawing of a figure wearing what looks like a flight suit and has, what is labelled as, a 'wasp inspired backpack' on.

Necromechania: The City Within - Brooklyn Mtendereki

A 2.5D anatomical puzzle-platformer where you play as a heretic inventor who must prove to her gaslit steampunk civilization that they live inside a fossilized god's corpse—using real anatomy as mechanics. All before its waking metabolism digests them all.

A screen split into four with, clockwise from top left, what looks like a segment for autumn, winter, summer and spring. In each quadrant there is a yellow triangle character with a face.

Nobody Nose - Grace Mccullagh Stacey

A quirky 2D comedy adventure game that is full of surprises. Nobody knows you in your village, so you set out on a daring quest to acquire pieces of a broken 'broken nose' statue that's pieces have been scattered across Noseland.

A series of five photos of pages of a sketchbook. In the various images there are line drawings of a large cat like animal holding a lantern with its tail, a skeleton with a crown on and a human like creature in a layered outfit.

Olividado Estrella - Nissi Mazvidza

Waking up with no memories and no grasp of your surroundings, you find a small name tag attached to your shawl identifying you as Pax. This scenic adventure game will remind you of the beauty of the past.

A pencil drawing of a newspaper layout with spaces for images and text and a couple of headlines already written. Headlines on the page include 'Breaking News! Bread going missing across town', 'Slither escapes again' and 'Wonky ducks?'

Paper Detective - Sol Davis & Ines French

A crime-solving puzzle game set in an anthropomorphic world and based on the popular gimmick of a detective looking through eyeholes in a newspaper to stake out a crime scene. He must get clues from both the location and the newspaper, combining them to solve the crime.

An image of a computer screen that has a character stood in the top left corner on a floating red box that say's 'Check point' and various other matching red pillars with cogs on positioned across the screen.

Pixel-Man - Jack Sumner

An action-adventure platformer with levels of increasing difficulty. The player character, Pixel-Man, is made out of pixels and his movements and graphics are blocky and slow.

A felt pen drawing of a figure in a purple hooded coat walking through a forest with a torchlight towards a treehouse.

Wonder Forest - Tara Hosalli, Charlotte Hsu & Hafsa Kibria

Alice in Wonderland gone wrong sums up the concept of this game. A girl falls asleep while playing her favourite game and awakens as the main character, Zara. To escape, she must advance through the world, which grows darker and more challenging, with deadlier weapons and quests.

Game Concept Award: 15 - 18 years old

A painted image of what is labelled 'angel's cafe' with a couple of figures at a table on the left.

Aasuri - Tanisi Rawat

Working in a cafe hill station on the Himalayas, you are forced to serve angels upon their descension during the end of the world. Aasuri is inspired by the 'aanchri' (fairies) from kumaoni/garwhali folklore and is a psychological horror mixed with a typical cooking game.

A computer screen image of three character cards. From left to right; one card is red and says 'Guide', one is yellow and says 'Aziel' and one is Green and says 'Maro'.

Beyond Woe - Viktoria Bokotej

A visual novel adventure game where two fighters are required to scale multiple summits across multiple mountains Each one holds tough challenges for them such as huge monsters and tricky terrain to prove that they're worthy of a good mentor.

A comic strip style page with various elements of the journey of a bread shaped character.

Bread on the run - Liana Ekanayake Ralalage & Noor Ali

In Bread on the Run, you play as a piece of bread. One day, you decide to change your gruesome fate, being eaten. Break free and escape the kitchen! Dodge obstacles and go against bosses. But just don't ever forget , DON'T STOP RUNNING!

A pen drawing of a room in a box with two stick men in, two figures one labelled character and one labelled enemy and a box with the word 'laboratory' in it.

Create Or Die - Fynn O’Donnell

A puzzle action game where players respawn themselves and play while their previous attempts play out in real time, meaning they are able to interact together and use their previous actions to their advantage.

A black and white sketch of three figures, one in a three piece suit and trilby, sat around a table with word bubbles around them. The word bubbles read: 'Word Bank', 'Bat, Wall, Carp' and 'It was...'

Dead man's language - Faiza Saeed

A word-based murder mystery and social deduction game set in the late 40s where you and five other players are invited onto a cruise by an anonymous host against their will.

A page split into four with multiple figures on. From left to right; one figure in dungarees and a long trench coat with the word 'Waking' next to them, two matching figures in trousers, a high collar waistcoat and cape with the word 'Drowsy' next to them, a figure wearing a short jumpsuit and with the word 'Waking' next to them, and another two matching figures wearing a long black coat and scarf with the word 'Drowsy' next to them.

Dreams of the Drowsy - Ellie Lau

A narrative-driven puzzle/detective game where the threat of reality's collapse is solely localised within the sleepy town of Somnley. The only force keeping this threat at bay? A woefully unqualified odd-jobs agency run in a narrowboat.

An illustration of seven different game characters that look like types of robot.

Echoes in the dark - Henry Francis

You play as a robotic entity that is lost in the depths below the ground. You must upgrade and modify yourself creatively as you climb upwards if you want to fulfil your dream of seeing the surface.

A hazy green screen with a shadowy figure visible in trousers and a long overcoat. There are various notes coming off the screen including: 'Reconstruction Puzzle', 'Player collects memory fragments' and player has to reorder the collected fragments'.

The Last Thing the World Forgot - Dhyani Patel

In a futuristic, data-overloaded world where memories are ranked and erased, you play as Echo, a being who hears forgotten things. Exploring fading places, you must choose what deserves to be remembered through your memory-power. Every choice reshapes reality, revealing that Echo themselves is a memory at risk of disappearing.

Line drawings of a character board. It includes images of the inside of a car, an allotment and a woman labelled 'florist at the shop'.

Sprouts and Seedlings - Rowan Clarke

A cosy game designed to be put down and picked up as many times as you want, with satisfying progress and an overarching theme of horticulture and gardening.

TailBreak - Erin Goddard

TailBreak is a co-operative puzzle platformer game for up to five players about a group of animals teaming up to break their friends out of pest control.

Feeling Inspired?

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