Sunderland Software City

Bafta Workshop

75 students from five local schools have become the first people to experience the £10m Sunderland Software Centre this week - at an event run by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and Sunderland Software City.
 
The students – from Castle View Academy, Red House Academy, Oxclose Community School, Washington School, Heaton Manor and St Hilds, Hartlepool – took part in a games design workshop and careers event organised as part of the BAFTA Young Game Designers competition.
 
The competition aims to inspire the game designers and game-makers of the future by giving young people the chance to design and create their own video game and develop it with industry professionals
 
The event allowed students to hear firsthand about careers in software and how commercial games are made from industry insiders before getting the chance to enter the competition, previous winners of which have been turned into real game prototypes.
 
Speakers included representatives of leading companies in the games industry  including Thumbstar, Swallowtail, and local firms Eutechnyx and Ubisoft Reflections, makers of the Driver and Just Dance games.
 
One speaker was Matthew Clarke, Lead Designer at Eutechnyx, the Gateshead-based, BAFTA-nominated studio which specialises in racing games.
 
He said: "Our founder Brian Jobling started developing games as a 14-year-old in his bedroom in Gateshead, and now his company employees almost 200 people in UK, China, Hong Kong and the USA, so Eutechnyx is a great example of the amazing journey a career in software can take you on.
 
"Eutechnyx is committed to encouraging the next generation of North East software talent and we're thrilled to be taking part in this event"
 
BAFTA Young Game Designers aims to inspire the game designers and game-makers of the future by giving young people the chance to design and create their own video game and develop it with industry professionals.  Students will get the chance to enter two awards, the Concept Award for those who can write an idea for a new game and the Game-making Award (presented by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe), aimed at young people who want to make their own games using game-making software or programming languages.
 
Young people can enter one or both categories, either as an individual, as a pair or as a team of three. The top three entrants in both categories will be invited to the British Academy Children’s Awards in November, and the winners will have their game developed with experts from the University of Abertay Dundee, as well as visiting a Sony games studio.

David Dunn, Chief Executive Officer of Sunderland Software City, the regional initiative driving and supporting the growth of the North East software industry, said:
 
“A huge part of Sunderland Software City’s role is inspiring the next generation of North East software talent and helping local young people see software as a realistic and rewarding career option.
 
“We know a lot of young people think software isn’t for people like them or has nothing to do with the things they’re passionate about, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Events like this are a great way of challenging those misconceptions and showing local young people the amazing places a career in software can take you.
 
“A team of local students recently won the Imagine Cup, the national software development competition run by Microsoft, and  we’re hoping another North East team goes on to repeat that success in the BAFTA Young Game Designers competition  – letting the rest of the country know the North East is the place to beat when it comes to  young software talent.”
 
The BAFTA workshop will be the first major event to take place at the £10m Sunderland Software Centre, which opens later this year.
 
Designed to become the home of regional and national software innovation, the Tavistock Place building includes a user observation room for software companies to test drive their products with the public, a Google-style Campus area for co-working and collaboration, a scrawl room, where ideas can be written on walls, captured and re-projected at a later date and 60 offices designed specifically for software companies.
 
The building also includes a public engagement space for schools and community groups to use for learning and training sessions and for exciting exhibitions and events showcasing the importance software and the software industry in the North East in the 21st century.

The Sunderland Software City project is part financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), managed by the Department for Communities and Local Government.