2024 Young Game Designers: ‘Game Making’ finalists

BAHN is a top-down genre-bending Sokoban puzzle game where players guide a tadpole-like character, BAHN, through challenging and wacky puzzles to escape the game itself and reach the Green Win Spiral. The player will come across increasingly complex mechanics like moving balls and unlocking gates. Discover interactions between items, such as lasers which fire out a beam when activated allowing you to power receptacle blocks and a Void Box which saves items that fall into the void and allow you to stack multiple things in one space, adding depth to puzzles. Uncover secrets like hidden Blue Spirals to unlock Secret Levels with wacky gimmicks, transforming gameplay unexpectedly, from first-person shooters to controlling objects to playing Baba Is You!

Bombastic is an action platformer set in an ancient crypt inhabited by an ancient evil. Play as a bombastic hero on a quest to save the world from this evil. Utilise bombs to kill enemies, jump great heights, and conquer challenging levels. Run, jump, and blast through obstacles to confront and defeat the creature at the final boss fight.

In Carrot Catcher, embark on an epic journey through a fantastical, calming forest and an arid dilapidated desert as a squishy little slime. Use abilities like dashing, bouncing, sliding and wall jumping to swiftly navigate levels while collecting the abundance of carrots to increase your score. But be careful! One wrong move can send you hurtling towards your squishy demise. A mysterious yet familiar-looking brain in a vat guides you along the way.

clim3r is a unique 2D platformer about climbing – with a twist. Players control a three-armed character navigating progressively more challenging levels. Each arm is controlled using different mouse buttons, enabling reaching, hanging, and swinging from handholds. With physics-based gameplay, players utilise gravity and momentum to cross gaps and climb efficiently. The game prioritises skill-based fun over narrative, offering an engaging platforming experience.

In Crack The Egg!, you are holding a frying pan while eggs rain from the sky. Your goal is to survive by cracking as many eggs as possible. Each cracked egg earns Yolks, used to purchase more powerful pans with better attributes to aid speed, healing or strength. Players can also buy lasers to help in egg-cracking and boss battles. With various egg types and a split-screen multiplayer mode, the game offers engaging, evolving gameplay for Xbox players.

Reelworld invites players into a cinematic run-and-gun platformer, starring Lenzo, a reanimated camera who can enter films to recover his memories. Set in an abandoned overgrown movie theatre, Lenzo embarks on a journey through various worlds of different films, unravelling his past by collecting and playing reels. Action-packed and constantly changing run-and-gun platformer with many memorable moments and gameplay that'll keep you on your feet. The game mixes the classic enemy stomping with modern projectile gameplay and challenges players with hordes of enemies and a boss at the end of a film. Bonus collectibles and detailed cutscenes add depth to the experience, while the partially revealed narrative sparks imagination and interpretation but also potential expansion. It should feel like the player is piecing the story together in the same way Lenzo is.

Soul Archer is a 2D metroidvania adventure within a forgotten world. Players control an archer infected with the spirit of the god Aer, and partner with a mysterious entity named "The Companion". It knows more about your powers than you do yourself and you must adventure with it to unlock your true potential. Armed with a bow and powers to destroy any incoming dangers, players navigate this land, encountering enemies, overcoming traps, and discovering tons of unique secrets to learn more about this forgotten world.

In Trickshot, players take on the role of a cat skater accompanied by their drone mentor, navigating through a sprawling city to reach the train station swiftly. Combining unique skateboarding physics with gun recoil, execute tricks for both movement and combat. Players must balance the skills of performing gravity defying stunts for ammo, and using the blaster to take down enemies, to achieve the best possible movement and flow. With a focus on replay-ability and fast-paced action, the game challenges players to master the tricks of ollies, rail grinds and aerials, to evade obstacles, and defeat enemies in pursuit of optimal speed. Harness the adrenaline of skateboarding whilst wielding a blaster, where every trick, flip and grind replenishes your ammo!

Unplugged immerses players in a puzzle game where they play as a plug, powering electrical components, using your battery and wire to reach plug sockets. Connected to a battery via cable, players power conductors to activate components like fans, doors, and lifts to assist the plug's movement. Logic gates such as and/or gates change the interactions of the components, meaning the player must think logically about the puzzles. With limited cable length and a blend of logical and creative thinking, players must devise optimal paths through each level. The open-ended narrative invites players to create their own stories and lore behind the game.

Voidside is a high-octane Parkour FPS in which the player is a survivor that jumps around many different places, pulled from space and time by a mysterious event known as the shattering, battling the horde of strange enemies that call this place home. Survive, collect health crystals, and coins for upgrades amid quick gameplay bursts. Voidside combines the thrills of a shooter with the massive enemy quantity of a bullet heaven, offering unlockable area-of-effect attacks to flip the game from a struggle to a breeze in an instant. Wall-run, dash and outmanoeuvre your enemies to gain the advantage on the battlefield! All in all, this game is a slick, satisfying and exhilarating experience which is extremely easy to pick up and play.

CAR! is a simple game set against a mountain backdrop under a nice blue sky. With the player controlling the car, traverse down the road, whilst trying not to fall off and avoiding obstacles along the way.

In Circuit Breaker, players immerse in an action-packed metroidvania, battling robots to destroy the evil NME corporation across 7 3D levels and an open-world city. Players, as the robot Pandora, set off on a journey to defeat the world. Armed with a powerful blaster, wall-running, and action-packed combat skills, they infiltrate an underground facility to corrupt robot source codes.

In Cosmic Bird, guide Bird through space in a shoot 'em up style game to reach home. Visit planets to purchase cool upgrades to help Bird's journey. The player uses ARROW and SPACEBAR keys to move themselves and destroy incoming obstacles.

DnB Bullet Hell is a fast-paced, pattern-based dodging game synced to the rhythm of drum and bass music. Dodge the bullet makers, each firing in a variety of ways based around the music. Players have two abilities to aid them through the levels. Staying close to the centre while minimising hits maximises scores.

RoboRogue is a rogue-like adventure where players defeat enemies and upgrade weapons by obtaining random items from crates. Set in a post-apocalyptic world that humans have left, players, as a robot, fight off evil robots. Starting with an incredibly weak pistol, they progress through defeating enemies, gaining new weapons and equipment. Each run is unique, offering different weapons and upgrades, providing varied challenges. Who knows? Maybe you could defeat the final boss and obtain an item of a tier so powerful that you could break the game...

Rooftoppers invites players to experience Bristol, England, from a new perspective via its core mechanic of climbing buildings. As 16-year-old Levi Alves, explore the city's architecture in a unique and fun way. The games three levels (so far) feature recreated landmarks like Cabot Tower, The Chimney, and Castle Park View, each one made to-scale.

Your rocket is tens of thousands of kilometres above earth, hurtling through the atmosphere, with its fuel tanks half empty - as the ground rushes towards it, and mission control hold their breath, will you keep your cool, and land safely? The world is watching… 'shetLANDER' is set in Shetland – the site of the UK’s first spaceport. The player carefully controls a space rocket on a test flight, attempting to fly as high as possible into the atmosphere, whilst conserving enough fuel to land safely.

Earn your place at Mount Olympus by battling your way through the realms of maddened gods, choosing your own path while fending off relentless attacks from unique enemies, all leading to a final showdown against Dionysius, the god of madness. Dionysius, driven by a twisted sense of fun, has made all gods mad. You play as Heracles' soul and must free all the gods from Dionysius’ spell. Progress through seven areas, each ruled by a maddened god and their minions. Whilst encouraging free exploration and multiple story paths, the game keeps to a retro-style platformer. Players forge their own path through horizontal and vertical levels, bouncing off platforms and walls across different screens. This is an easy-to-learn-difficult-to-master game full of unique bosses, enemies, and great level design. To get to the end, you need to develop skill, strategy, and precision.

SPelling Squirrel is a simple, fun & addictive spelling game tailored for ages 6-13, blending education with entertainment. Players are presented with a squirrel carrying a basket, which can be moved horizontally to catch falling letters to make up a word. Accuracy is key as letters must be collected in the correct order to spell the given word. A back button allows for corrections, but mistakes affect the score. Each week contains 10 words to support the KS1 & KS2 school curriculum and it was created to help students enjoy weekly spelling tests.

This Isn't Quite Right is a captivating 2D 8-bit puzzle platformer set in a simulation controlled by an evil computer. Players navigate challenging levels making use of a time control mechanic, whilst being made fun of by this computer-narrator. The computer manipulates the surroundings to obstruct progress and never takes a physical form though he is eventually defeated at the end of the game by a fault in his programming.