Fred Hoffman

(He/Him)

Fred’s breakthrough project is the game Paper Trail.

Despite spending his spare time as a child playing the likes of Zelda and Metroid on the GameCube, Fred Hoffman never thought games had the potential to be a career because, unlike films and television, such perfectly polished games obscured the human touch that conjured them into existence. Instead, he focused on his talent for illustration – inspired by his glass sculptor father and art teacher mother – to do “everything but games”. An alternative career beckoned in animation, textile design, wallpaper design, fabrics or fashion until Fred was asked by his brother, Henry, to help create assets for his debut game, Hue (2016), while still at university.

Having discovered that games art was not so different from his previous artistic endeavours – sharing many of the same characteristics, such as colour palette and textures – he joined forces with his brother to co-found Newfangled Games in 2019. Working as art director in a core team of five, their debut game was devious level-folding puzzler, Paper Trail (2023).

Newfangled has already started work on its “supersecret, very much under wraps” next game, with Fred now managing a team of artists as the indie developer builds on its success.

In their own words…

“Making games is quite an isolating process – it’s a lot of coding and sitting at a desk with your laptop. I’m hoping Breakthrough will make me feel part of a community and meet more likeminded people that exist beyond just ‘the project’… It’s really good to be here. Games aren’t an afterthought at BAFTA. It’s really refreshing. There’s a real understanding and appreciation for games and the industry. Especially the Awards, it feels like its elevating it to that same level of seriousness [as film and TV].”