EE British Academy Film Awards 2022 – Young Game Designer Harry Petch

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A BAFTA YOUNG GAME DESIGNERS SUPERTEAM ENTERS A CLIMATE CHANGE-THEMED GAME JAM? THEY SHOWCASE THEIR GAME AT COP26 AND TO ROYALTY, NATURALLY.

Harry Petch

BAFTA

Climate change is front page news, but communications on how and what changes we should make are often complex and confusing. One way to encourage positive action is through engaging storytelling, and this was the challenge set by Abertay University for a game jam sponsored by SSE Thermal, themed around carbon capture technology. Four students teamed up to create a climate action game, Net Carbon, that would not only win the jam but also go on to be finetuned and displayed at UN climate change conference COP26.

Net Carbon

Harry Petch

All four talented students are former BAFTA Young Game Designers (YGD) alumni, namely: Harry Petch, Cam Tuliao, Jaime Williams and Jordan Han. “It feels like YGD is one big family to me,” says Harry, who was twice a YGD finalist and also the winner of the Mentor Award. “We created a game that we all felt had some nice nuance. It was quite simple but we were happy with it... COP26 was overall a very valuable experience and we had some lovely feedback.”

Earlier this year, Harry was invited to BAFTA 195 Piccadilly to present Net Carbon to HRH The Duke of Cambridge at the first official event to be held in our fully redeveloped HQ. The event was a showcase of new talent and included the launch of a new career development bursary in Prince William’s name, as well as the announcement of a new tier of membership for emerging practitioners.

Showcasing Net Carbon to BAFTA's president, The Duke of Cambridge

BAFTA/Scott Garfitt

It was great to chat to the other BAFTA beneficiaries about their journeys,” Harry says. “And it’s not every day you get to present your game to Prince William. It still feels a little surreal, but it was awesome... He’s really interested in the arts and what BAFTA does to give back to people. It was a real morale boost for our team and added that little extra bit of validation.”

They may still be students right now, but clearly there’s more to come from Team YGD.

Watch this space.

By Toby Weidmann