Coders of the future STEM from FXP Festival 2017

Almost 100 school and college students from across East Anglia descended on Cambridge last weekend (24 – 25 June) for this year’s FXP (Future Experience Points) Festival, a games Concept and Development competition. Finalists from the Festival included teams from Parkside Community College, Longsands Academy, and West Suffolk College.

The Festival, hosted at Cambridge Regional College (CRC), gives young people an exciting hands-on games development experience and insight into what careers in the creative digital industry offer.

There are two streams to the competition – Concept and Development - with two age group categories for the Development competition; Level 1 for schools and Level 2 for college, catering for a broad range of creative abilities and programming skills and knowledge.

First place in the Level 1 Development competition was awarded to team There is no Spoon from Parkside Community College. First place in the Level 2 Development competition was scooped by Still Nina Tucker from Suffolk New College.

The competition comprises a games jam which takes place across two days with a surprise theme. Michael Warburton, Co-founder of the Festival and Mark Ogilvie, Design Director at Jagex announced the theme of ‘super’ to a room of excited students.

Addressing the audience at the awards ceremony, Mark Ogilvie said: “You are the next generation of games developers and designers; you’ll be playing with technology we can only dream of. The games industry is moving in directions we never thought it would, and is changing people’s lives. From an industry perspective it is inspiring to come to events like this – it is great to see true unbridled creativity from some unique souls.”

“Teams from the Festival gave amazing interpretation to the theme of ‘super’; we have seen games which included a supernova, superheroes, superstition, even soup. Several of the games that have been developed or storyboarded across the weekend are games that publishers would genuinely pick up.”

Team Danny and the He Man from Chesterton Community College was crowned winner of the Level 1 Concept competition. First place in the Level 2 Concept competition was awarded to team Lucid from West Suffolk College.

Michael Warburton said: “The level of skill I have seen this weekend has been shockingly good. It goes to show the sheer talent that the learners in the region have. This also shows a level of commitment from teachers and parents in encouraging the students, as well as the learners’ love of the industry.”

Linked to the Computer Science curriculum, FXP Festival is supported by major players in the creative digital sector, who provided mentoring and coaching throughout the weekend, as well as sponsorship and prizes. These included Amazon, Anglia Ruskin University, Jagex, Microsoft, ARM, Hacklab, Rizing Games, Cambridge Regional College and Conscious Communications.

Alison Taylor, Co-founder of FXP Festival and Managing Director of Conscious Communications, said: “FXP was conceived when we became aware that every local authority in Cambridgeshire falls below the national average for the education and employment prospects of disadvantaged children. We saw an opportunity to open young people’s eyes – in particular girls – to the realistic possibility of a career in digital arts, and to make the crucial connection between that career and their Computer Science lessons at school.”