Digital Lancashire

Side Quest is a new initiative to get 13-19-year-olds to learn a range of key practical and workplace skills during lockdown through designing and building videogames. 

The scheme is set up by the youth games career service, Into Games and the national trade body, UKIE. Participants will be able to take part remotely, with free software, curriculum mapped worksheets, online tutorials and a community of fellow game builders on the social platforms Twitch and Discord. 

Launching on May 4th, Side Quest is a radical new UK wide initiative to encourage the 3.3 million 13-19-year-olds currently at home during the pandemic to start a rewarding career in the videogames industry. Side Quest challenges participants to build a game in 7 days, with free software, regular live-streamed masterclasses and a supportive online community.   

• The programme aims to get 100,000 young people building their first video game 
• The ‘Quests’ involve participants building a game to a set challenge within 7 days
• Quests have been put forward by some of the UK’s biggest studios including Sumo Digital (Crackdown 3, Team Sonic Racing), Creative Assembly (Total War, Alien Isolation), and Sports Interactive (Football Manager) with more announced over coming weeks    
• No previous game making experience is required
• Free access to a fully working copy of GameMaker Studio 2 software will be provided courtesy of Dundee based YoYo Games on a 30-day basis 
• Weekly lessons from industry experts talking about their career and providing exclusive masterclasses from concept art to programing will be streamed on Twitch
• Paper prototyping worksheets are available for those without access to laptops 
• Quests will be mapped to the National Curriculum by UKIE’s educational programme, Digital Schoolhouse 
• Side Quest will be running new Quests every 2 weeks until schools reopen in September 
• Side Quest will use the hashtag #sidequestgames

The first ‘quest‘ will be provided by the award-winning game studio, Sumo Digital, who have also created a range of tutorials to help beginners understand the basics. The first theme will be titled, ‘House Spyder’, inspired by Sumo’s recently released hit game, Spyder, with a quarantined twist!  Participants are encouraged to interpret the theme however they like and be as imaginative as possible.  

The scheme is run by the games careers service, Into Games and supported by the industry trade body, UKIE, as well as The National Videogame Museum, NextGen Skills Academy, and Digital Skills Partnership. 

Into Games CEO, Declan Cassidy stated; 

“We want Side Quest to be simply a super accessible way to start making videogames. The initiative is designed to remove as many barriers to entry as possible, from free software to follow along, paper worksheets, we think anyone can get started. Games are the nexus point between artistic and academic subjects, and we hope SideQuest will showcase how game making can be used to practically learn subjects as diverse as maths, English, art and science in a way that brings them all to life.” 

UKIE CEO, Dr Jo Twist also added; 

“The best way to learn what it’s like to be in the games industry is to have a go at making one of your own. Side Quest is a fantastic opportunity for teens to build their first great game and to learn that anyone, from whatever background from anywhere can make it in our sector.”

Participants can go to https://sidequest.org.uk and sign up straight away.