Caddington pupil in games design final

A 12-year-old Caddington schoolgirl was one of the finalists in a nation-wide game design competition for under 18-year-olds, judged by a panel of industry experts.
BAFTA YGD finalist Ellen O'Regan and familyBAFTA YGD finalist Ellen O'Regan and family
BAFTA YGD finalist Ellen O'Regan and family

And although Ellen O’Regan wasn’t one of the winners at BAFTA Young Game Designers 2016, she’s delighted she got as far as she did - as well as attending Saturday’s glittering awards event in London’s Piccadilly with her family.

She said: “It was very exciting and I was really amazed by all the other entries.”

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The Year 7 pupil at John F Kennedy Catholic School was shortlisted for her game Cross Keys – a journey into another solar system ‘where typelings and other electrical devices live merrily in their unique home planet Computiper until a virus tragically strikes their world destroying almost every byte and bit. Now it’s the typelings’ turn to help their heroic leader King Key.’

Ellen explained: “My inspiration was wanting to do something educational that was also fun. Learning to type is always boring so I wanted to introduce it in a game to help children.”

She so enjoyed the experience of creating Cross Keys that she may well consider a career in the game industry.

Ellen entered the competition through a lunch-time club at school and will definitely try again.

Finalists came from across the UK and a third were female.

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> The BAFTA Young Game Designers competition, in association with Nominet Trust, is part of a year-round programme of activities that gives young people and educators unique insights into the industry and access to the creative minds behind some of their favourite games.

Support includes a website – www.bafta.org/ygd – and a range of teaching resources that link the competition to the national curriculum.

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