Game on - meet the teens aiming for careers in the video game industry

Louie is one of the teenagers who had to chance to flex their video game creation skills

It is a multi-billion pound industry, in which tech-savvy teenagers Louie, Sam and Amina hope to carve out a career.

An estimated three billion people worldwide regularly play video games, and the business is thought to be worth twice as much as film and music industries combined.

Which is partly why Louie, Sam and Amina were among the young people honing their skills this week as part of a course in Londonderry and Belfast.

The five-day Games Jam, organised by the Nerve Centre, allowed them to develop their own games from a blank canvas and get a glimpse of what it takes to make it in the gaming world.

Gaming is now a multi-billion-pound industry

With industry professionals on hand to offer help with visuals, characters and bringing games to life, the teenage coders had to work as a team to develop an original concept.

They were given a game brief to produce a playable and user-friendly experience, with artists and animators creating animated sequences.

'Blown away by talent'

Barry Brennan, from the Nerve Centre, believes teenage coders could have a bright future in the gaming industry

Barry Brennan, community partnership manager with the Nerve Centre in Belfast, said it allowed the teenagers to "flex their creative muscle" to create something from scratch.

"We set a theme on day one and they literally start with a blank piece of paper and they have to produce a game," he said.

He and the other organisers had been "blown away" by the talent of the students, who are all in the late teens.

He believed many would go on to carve out a future in the games industry.

"Young people now have so much opportunity with the likes of ourselves and the Screen Academies, the likes of Cinemagic and other initiatives to help young people get into the creative industries."

Amina is one of those who hopes to carve out a future in the gaming industry

For those who took part, it was an impressive week. Amina said that, for her, the most enjoyable part was the coding.

"I only knew a bit of it but the animation was a bit hard because I had to make sure it looks OK and not a bit weird," she said.

Sam was one of those who took part in the course at the Nerve Centre in Derry

Sam, who sees his future in gaming, thought the week was hugely beneficial because he was able to learn new things and find out what he enjoyed.

"I came here because I wanted to do more stuff around gaming and learn more and really practise my skills making the games," he said.

"It was quite challenging to come up with a game that would be fun and interesting that you could do within five days."

Louie said he enjoyed finding out how games were made and discovered that he was "really good at design".

"I didn't actually know how to make a game before this but this really helped me to learn how everything is made and helped my confidence a lot."

Rachel McDermott, from the Nerve Centre, said gaming is getting "bigger and bigger" in Northern Ireland

Rachel McDermott, education manager at the Nerve Centre, said the course would give the young people the skills they need to work in the creative industries.

"So they've come here to this programme to learn those key skills so they can have them on their CV and it gives them that headstart within their careers," she said.

"There's a massive skills gap at the minute and that's where we come into play."

She said they were trying to fill that gap and embed those skills within our young people so they are ready for the jobs of the future.

The course also gave the teenagers a taste for project management and creative decision-making under pressure.

And for those who want to pursue a career in the industry they also learned about the various jobs available from professionals in the gaming world.