Leveling Up - Young Game Designers Debut Original Creations at CARIFESTA XV

On a stage usually reserved for seasoned artists and industry pros, four young visionaries—aged 11 to 18—stepped into the spotlight at the CARIFESTA XV Village & Grand Market to premiere their own video games. Fresh from the Level Up: Game Design Camp, these campers didn’t just talk about their dreams—they coded them into existence, showcasing everything from eerie RPG caves to playful retro platformers built with professional tools like Unity and Unreal. For them, this wasn’t just play—it was power.

The presentation took place on the penultimate day of a three-week summer camp where the students learned how to build their own games from the keyboard up. With help from instructors, Anik Niles and Braden Banning, and hands-on sessions in game engines like Unity and Unreal, each camper brought an idea to life.

Anik Niles, the founder of Bimshire, was the director, and an instructor of the camp, started it after having a major health setback in 2022 and deciding that if she couldn’t pursue her dreams that she would help others pursue theirs.

She cited this quote, feeling it shared her own beliefs “If you can’t fly, then run. If you can’t run, then walk. If you can’t walk, then crawl. But whatever you do, You have to keep moving forward” by Martin Luther King Jr.

She thought that if she could get kids into the gaming industry and teach them the basics early on, then if they wished to continue with the industry, they would have a solid foundation to start on.

Braden Banning, an experienced game developer who has been in the industry for half a decade was an instructor at the camp. He taught the campers the fundamentals, for instance, how to use Unity, a free, simple, and user-friendly 2-D game engine, and Unreal, a free, realistic, and challenging game engine.

Each camper made a game using one or both engines.

Aidan, a fourteen-year-old who wanted to go into software engineering and animation, created a 2-D adventure platform game using Unity. He designed semi-solid platforms where players could only jump through from below.  He used a rendering software called Enscape to create the animations of the rabbit running and the carrot model.

Ariella was an eighteen-year-old who was looking to get into the Barbados Community College Visual Arts program. On Unreal, she used an action RPG template that had pre-made art assets and blueprints, and she created a dark and gloomy fantasy-inspired cave. And on Unity, so far, she had created a retro-inspired level with a character she designed herself called AJ. The character wore a long-sleeved white blouse, a long dark purple skirt, white thigh socks, and black shoes. Her long, textured hair was tied into a puff.

The youngest member of the camp was an eleven-year-old boy named Nicholas, who wanted to be a game developer and work at one of the big game companies. He chose to do one game in Unreal, where he created a shrine where demons and goblins fought against spider monsters.

Christopher was a thirteen-year-old boy who was hoping to do game designing or engineering who used both game engines. His Unreal level was a game where the player must kill non-player characters (NPCs) to increase the game’s timer. The unity game was based on the group board game they had created earlier in camp. In the game, the player could pick up, stack, and build with shipping containers.

Written by:

Victoria Boyce

Youth Correspondent - CARIFESTA XV