19-06-2025
Three Oxfordshire teens win BAFTA gaming design awards
The BAFTA young game designs awards recognised three teens from Oxfordshire in the ceremony's 15th anniversary.
The winners, Isabelle Taylor and Emily Sun, both 17 and from Oxford, and Luke Rayfield, 18, from South Oxfordshire, won three of the five awards granted.
Coming from the world-renowned film and television awards charity BAFTA, the young game designers competition celebrates and encourages the next generation entering the UK games industry.
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The 52 finalists of this year's competition were competing for one of two awards, the game concept award, which rewards the most original and best thought-out game idea, and the game making award, which goes to the most impressive use of coding skills (on a freely available software) to create a prototype game.
Each award is split into two age categories, 10-14 years and 15-18 years. Oxfordshire put forward winners in both awards.
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Isabelle Taylor and Emily Sun won the Game Concept Award for the upper age group, for their winning game concept Mikka Bouzu.
Isabelle Taylor and Emily Sun, both 17 from Oxford, won the game concept award for their design Mikka Bouzu (Image: BAFTA) They describe the game as being "made for players who struggle with the difficult transition from child to adult, and the burnout that it often brings."
The game follows protagonist Mikka Bouzu, a game designer who has lost her passion for art, who must journey through three of her unfinished games and write endings for them to rediscover her lost creativity.
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In the game making award upper age range category, Luke Rayfield won for his game Furniture Fu, which combines two seemingly disparate skills - martial arts and interior decorating.
Players can beat demons while mastering tasteful home design, in a game that Mr Rayfield describes as 'easy to learn and hard to master" where strategic furniture arranging means better monster hunting.
He said: "This competition and Furniture Fu represents two huge milestones for me - firstly, an amazing accolade, and secondly, the only time I've managed to make a game to schedule.
"There's something so gratifying about so much work and passion coming together, against all odds, and I am thrilled for the opportunity to share that passion with others."
Luke Rayfield, 18 from Oxfordshire, designed Furniture Fu (Image: BAFTA) The winners of this year's competition were announced in a digital ceremony hosted by actor and comedian Inel Tomilson, and will go on to have their work featured at a showcase in Piccadilly from the end of June.
Winning games will also be available to see at the Science Museum in London, the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, and the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford as part of the Power Up experience.
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Dan Ayoub of SVP Digital Games and member of the judging panel, said: "It was an absolute honour to serve on the judging panel for the BAFTA Young Game Designers awards.
"Beyond the joy of working alongside brilliant developers, I was genuinely humbled by the level of talent, creativity, and ambition these young creators brought.
"This experience left me deeply inspired—and incredibly optimistic about the future of our industry.'
