Hastings girl, 17, wins Bafta award

Tallulah Martinez, 17, was awarded the prize prize at Bafta's 2024 Young Game Designers competition.

Her design for The Whispering Wilds took the Game Concept Award for 15- to 18-year-olds.

She said: “I was shocked when I found out I'd won, but its been an amazing experience! Meeting other game concept artists and creators as well as having that recognition for my work has been the most wonderful thing.”

Her winning game concept is set in a world of ancient magic, exploring the open world and discovering the four covens - dusk, dawn, day and night, who have been forced into hiding and learning about the world’s magical plants and their medicinal uses.

Tallulah said she made the game for all audiences to educate them about history but particularly art-loving audiences and hopes playing The Whispering Wilds ‘feels like you’re playing through an art piece or painting with your environment’.

She said she became interested in video games while growing up watching her father playing the Legend of Zelda games.

Tallulah said: “Even when I was too young to properly play them, and too scared of fighting monsters, I’d watch my dad and siblings play, helping out on the puzzles and watching the story play out.

“I just fell in love with the telling of a story that makes the player feel part of the narrative and emotionally invested in all that happens.

“I’ve had an interest in games for a long time, but designing my own concepts came about more recently. A lot of the ideas I had didn't start out as games, they were stories and it grew from there, sometimes in the form of writing, sometimes through drawings, until I realised games were just another way of telling those stories.

“A lot of the inspiration for my concept came from the open world games that I grew up playing, but I have also been greatly influenced by Terry Pratchett's works.

“I was captivated by the idea of the witches of his Discworld, and that sort of almost mundane fantasy setting. For me, Pratchett evoked a true sense of reality throughout his framework of stories while dealing in fantasy. I also want the magic in my game to feel grounded within its world and story and encompassing for the player, not too fantastical to be approachable.”

Tallulah said she would ‘love’ to pursue a career in designing games.

She added: “I grew up feeling really inspired by other games and the diverse ways that you can involve an audience through game-play. And to be part of that would be truly incredible.”