Half Term Summer School for Budding Young Gamers

The Entertainment Software Charity is committed to helping disadvantaged children in a variety of ways and occasionally we are presented with an opportunity to help with a project directly related to our own industry.

During the October 2004 half term the ESC provided £500 of funding to an educational project in Nottingham, teaching teenagers how to create their own computer games.  Twenty 13- and 14-year olds from Nottingham city schools were given the opportunity to learn development skills directly from games industry professionals. 

Over the course of the half term week the children learnt how to create their own artwork, music and sound effects and put them together into finished games using a 2D game-programming package designed for children.  Developing their games challenged students' logical and mathematical skills as well as their creative ones, yet practically all the students kept coming back to complete the full week of events. Each day the children were also given a chance to play different games made by companies in the local region, including the outstanding Xbox version of Outrun 2. Developers of the game from Sumo-Digital were even kind enough to attend the event and help the children with their skills.

The project was organised and taught by Jacob Habgood, a researcher at Nottingham University's Learning Sciences Research Institute and a former game programmer at Gremlin in Sheffield. All the teaching resources from the project were produced in collaboration with games industry artists and programmers, and will be made freely available to teachers and educators from Jacob's website in the near future.

The week proved a huge success and the funding from the ESC meant that students could be given their own copies of all the software they need to start developing games at home.  As the next generation of budding game developers, the students have been invited to create their own games to go on show at next years Screenplay Festival, Nottingham's annual festival of gaming culture.

The ESC has made a three-year commitment to donating £120,000 to Whizz Kidz, the largest charity in the UK supplying mobility equipment to children. click for more

The ESC has made a three-year commitment to donating £120,000 to Whizz Kidz, the largest charity in the UK supplying mobility equipment to children. click for more

On the Run! Join the ESCapees on the Asics Reading Half-Marathon on April 9th 2006 and raise funds for the ESC