Aardman Animations are running a competition for young people to make games online based on Shaun the Sheep, with the winner invited to spend a day at Aardman Animations to have their game further developed. Scratch coding platform will allow children to make games using assets from Shaun the Sheep, and with a curriculum change requiring basic coding being taught, teachers will have the resources to help children learn how to code.
The competition in split into two categories - children aged 12 and under, and children aged 13 and over, and runs until September 2014. Aardman said that they were inspired by the Tate Movie Project, a film making project for children from 5 - 13 to collaborate in 2010/2011.
This is a great way to get kids learning and involved in the gaming industry from a young age, meaning that if they chose to pursue a career in it later on, they could already have the skills (and more) to be successful. If this competition - and the curriculum change does generate more interest in working in gaming and programming, then this could only mean good things for the industry - more people from diverse backgrounds will have the opportunity to work in the industry already having the skills necessary and the stigma over certain genders being more accepted in the gaming industry could decrease in newer generations, if you see everyone learning and taking part in coding and other computer related work.
This sort of opportunity is great even just for showing children what sort of career opportunities are out there; some might not even realise the possibility of making games for a living, and all of the different jobs involved in that.
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