Game on as university unveils festival programme

25th April 2013

The award-winning videogames education festival, Games Britannia, which provides hands-on workshops in digital creativity for young people, has announced the festival programme for 2013.

The five-day festival, held at Sheffield Hallam University, includes a game jam, three days of schools workshops and the Sumo-Digital roadshow for students. There will also be public talks by Professor Steve Furber, one of the creators of the BBC Micro, and Gary Carr, creative director of Lionhead Studios. Over 800 workshop places and 200 lecture tickets will be available all completely free of charge. Games Britannia takes place alongside the University's end-of-year degree show, Creative Spark, which showcases the best student work from creative disciplines including those on the University's industry-accredited games degrees. Last year's festival was named 'Best university / educational initiative' at the national TIGA Games Industry Awards 2012. Festival director and senior lecturer in games development at Sheffield Hallam, Dr Jake Habgood, said: "Games Britannia is about nurturing the next generation of creative talent in the UK, and the workshops this year give youngsters a wide range of options to explore. "The workshops are open to schools from anywhere in the UK and are completely free of charge, thanks to the kind support of our sponsors. Pupils can attend workshops in programming for the PlayStation® 3, creating 3D animations, making games for mobile devices, programming a robot, designing a board game, having a PE lesson with an Xbox360, and lots more. "There are also going to be two fantastic public lectures in the evenings, and a brilliant exhibition of student work using our own arcade cabinets. We'll also have the winning games of both this year's and last year's game design competition on display for people to enjoy. To view the full festival programme and sign up for Games Britannia workshops, visit www.gamesbritannia.com.