Games Design Competition Finalists' Day

The games design competition final is one of our favourite days at 2Simple, and this year's event at Amazon's London offices was no exception.

The day begins...

When schools began arriving at Amazon, they were shown into their designated “home room" where they could have lunch and store their bags. Schools took it in turns to practise their presentations and check that all technology was working smoothly.

The Judges

We were extremely lucky to have three highly-qualified judges to help decide on a winner:

Joe Pietroni

AWS

Joe loves playing games and working in games was always his dream job.  He started his own games company 20 years ago, creating web games for TV game shows like “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”, “Deal or No Deal” and “Family Fortunes”.  He went on to help found a game studio making mobile games for cartoons like “Mr. Bean” and “Simon’s Cat”.  These days Joe works for Amazon as a Principal Solutions Architect, helping some of the world’s biggest and most successful game studios design and run their games on AWS.

Lucy Runham

2Simple

Lucy studied interactive media at university, which included web usability, interface design, websites and games, graphic design and programming. She ended up specialising in the development of learning environments for primary-aged children. After this she became a primary school teacher and computing leader before moving to work in the EdTech sector in a range of roles. For almost 10 years now she has enjoyed working in schools with children and teachers- using Purple Mash to help them develop their Computing curriculum.

Michael Warburton

Bafta

From Games Lecturer to starting the world's first educational games company "Rizing Games", BAFTA Young Game Designer Mentor winner 2016 to Unity Partner Relations Manager, Michael has worked and supported across a wide span of the Gaming industry, with all roles and companies.

Michael has exhibited at E3, Gamescom and GDC. In his professional role at Unity, he has supported many commercial titles of all platforms and sizes, experiencing all the ups and downs of development! And as a lecturer, supported and guided many students as they start their first steps of their professional careers from their first games, to working in the industry themselves.

The Presentations

Sunny View presented their game on Teams all the way from Spain. They had a detailed explanation of the design process, showcasing the various game objects and enemies that didn't make the final cut. Their ideas for future improvements included adding multiplayer lobbies, 'boss' levels, and secret chests to gain coins and weapons. Marketing strategies involved TV and social media advertising, user testing, and global distribution. Judges were particularly impressed with their creative drawings of mummies and polar bears and said they had "Brilliant character designs and clear obstacles for each level which were themed for the environment".

Daresbury showcased remarkable dedication, with some members even leaving their Year 6 residential to attend the final. Their prerecorded explanations highlighted that inspiration for their fame theme came from Denmark and Colombia. One of their challenges was finding a way to delete an accidental third level, and they proposed a London-based level with integration into the Duolingo app for improvement and marketing purposes. Judges praised their language theme and that they had "Amazing audio asset development with themed environment songs, and a strong link to the competition theme with strong research".

Staines Prep's game centered on food and flags from around the world, guarded by evil chefs. Improvements included better voices and ensuring character voices weren't drowned out by music, as this was one of the challenges they faced. Marketing ideas involved sponsorship from Purple Mash and special events. Judges appreciated the family-friendly concept and multilingual audio, and that they had "Strong technical problem solving and solution finding, with great ideas for further title development beyond the competition."

St. Joseph’s team explained how they evenly distributed roles, working together to tackle challenges like ceiling design splits and varied audio for the level end. Future developments included additional levels addressing different environmental issues, such as an Arctic level stopping the ice caps melting. They had innovative ideas for marketing like in-game product placement advertising. The airport level as the entry level to the game and the team's marketing strategies were highlights for the judges, and they praise their "Clear win/lose mechanic and progression ramp, with a strong game narrative and monetisation idea."

Monkfield’s game was created by the school's Digital Leaders and featured a geography theme with landmarks and music inspired by the most memorable parts of their own travels. They tackled challenges such as balancing audio volumes and proposed a cheat sheet and a USA-based third level as improvements to their current game. Judges admired their creative use of tracing landmarks and French music and were impressed with their "Strong preplanning of levels before building and research which influenced the title development."

Goodmayes chose culturally rich locations and items for their levels, communicating after school on 2Email to refine their game. They faced challenges with background music selection and planned to add voiceovers to improve their game's accessibility, as well as adding levels based in countries of the team's origins, including Vietnam and Somalia. Their marketing plan included diverse media channels. Judges were impressed by the dual-country levels and that there were "Clear levels for a great user experience and amazing graphic content design".

Flax Hill’s game was linked to global warming, featuring penguins and immersive sound effects. Future plans included a swamp level, YouTube and social media marketing, influencer collaborations, and merchandise such as plushies - the team had even made some prototypes of their merchandise to show. Judges loved their Dungeons and Dragons-inspired backstory and the idea of collecting “earth shards.” They agreed that there was "A great companion mechanic and strong character development and the goal was well-linked with game progression."

Q&A Session and Amazon Tour

After the presentations, children were able to ask the judges questions about careers in games design, and there were some fantastic questions! The children found out all about game creation platforms, coding lamguages, and even the judges' favorite games. The 2Simple staff also shared insights about the competition's origin. The tour of Amazon's offices was a highlight, with children enjoying the miniature golf course, nap room, and giant foosball table.

Closing Remarks

Mike, Global Head of EdTech at AWS expressed how inspired he felt and the children's contagious energy and enthusiasm for the gaming industry - he hopes to see them working at Amazon in the future!

Nigel, founder of 2Simple, shared the importance of children creating their own content and in doing so, creating their own paths.

The Winners

Before announcing the winning team, the judges commented that the one thing the three of them said was how amazing all of the entries and teams were, and that they couldn’t have done this themselves at this age - to build something like this together and work together in teams like they have is phenomenal.

Judges then announced the winner as being: St. Joseph's Primary School!

They commented on the winning entry: "The project showed a strong thought process of thinking outside of the box for their environment and the obstacles were in theme with the title of the game. The narrative flowed well and also linked well with the game and the monetisation ideas were extremely innovative. We were also impressed with the collaboration shown through the development of the title and during the presentation."

Congratulations to St. Joseph's School, we hope they enjoy their prizes and sharing their winning game with family and friends.

Well done to all our finalists, it was a popular competition with hundreds of children entering!

Thank-you to all those involved, including AWS for hosting the event, and all our Judges. Most importantly, thank-you to all of the students for entering, and to the teachers and parents that supported and encouraged them to do so.