Big Egg Are really excited to be involved in the filming of ‘PlayingField’ which is an exciting project for young people in Brighton happening tomorrow, ran by FuturLab, (an award-winning game studio based here in Brighton)
The idea of the project is to promote diversity through children’s imagination, in order to encourage young people from all backgrounds to work in the videogame industry.
Declan Cassidy (Programme Lead) says: “PlayingField is a game jam where teams of professional video game developers are paired with young people aged 10 to 13 and tasked with helping them make their game idea. 99% of young people aged 8 to 15 play videogames on a regular basis, but the industry doesn’t reflect this diversity, with only 23% women and 4% Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic (BAME) actually working in the sector”.
These figures are clearly hard to swallow, and show that this is an area of extreme importance. The participants are children from local Brighton schools who would statistically be the least likely to enter the games industry.
At PlayingField the participants will have the opportunity to devise a game idea and see it brought to life with the help of inspiring experts. In this two-day event they will also be attending workshops run by Digital Schoolhouse, all in order to understand how games are made and developed and learn about the wide variety of roles available in the industry.
A number of high profile studios are taking part in the PlayingField project, such as Creative Assembly and BossAlien. As quoted by BossAlien’s Director of Engineering, “Our industry is about more than business - it’s about community. We feel it’s vital for us to do whatever we can to support and inspire the next generation of developers, especially those from less privileged backgrounds.”
Local Labour MP for Hove, Peter Kyle MP, also attending the event stated: “I’m a huge admirer of the thriving games and technology entrepreneurs in our City so it’s a great honour and pleasure to meet the next generation and encourage them to pursue their dreams. It’s remarkable to meet so many budding developers and I can only commend the organisers for encouraging diversity at a grassroots level.”
Launch is on the 1st and 2nd of June at Unity HQ in Brighton. Prizes will be given to the winning teams and the final games will be showcased publicly in galleries, primary schools and on the PlayingField website.
Video coming soon! Make sure to take a look at their work by visiting their website www.futurlab.co.uk
Adam Sheldon
Director
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