Transforming lives with games With the games industry more in the spotlight than ever before, Chris Wallace talks to the BGI and the National Videogame Museum to find out how they’re transforming lives with games
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his Christmas, the BGI is doing something special to introduce underprivileged children to the possibilities of the games industry. The charity that runs the National Videogame Museum (NVM) in Sheffield is launching a Christmas appeal to offer free museum visits to families in order for them to play games and learn how they’re made, as part of their new strategy of ‘transforming lives with games.’ The team at the BGI and the NVM are big believers in this mission, and have launched a host of programmes aiming to reach out to disadvantaged communities through games – from working with Sheffield’s refugee communities to create games art based on their local folklore, to an LGBTQ+ young producers club, to training teachers in
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deprived areas on how to use games in the classroom, to a programme training women and LGBTQ+ people of colour how to make games using Crayta. On top of all that, the BGI is one of the cofounders of Games Careers Week – an online festival that encourages people from every background to discover careers in the UK games industry (more on that later!) TRANSFORMING LIVES They’re certainly busy people. Which is why we were delighted that they had the time to sit down with us this month, to talk about the appeal, how COVID has changed attitudes towards games and games careers, and how they intend to transform the lives of others with games. One thing that struck us with the appeal is that it could encourage young people
