Engaging disadvantaged young adults through collaborative game development

Disadvantaged young people face disproportionate challenges in accessing education and employment. Higher education serves as an aspirational destination and recommended route to entry for certain industries, yet young people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are less likely to apply and enrol in higher education programmes. Disadvantaged young people may also be underrepresented within the workforce of certain sectors, compounding barriers to entering desired industries. Solutions to reduce barriers into education and employment are required. The paper presents a postmortem from a collaborative game development project with aims of addressing social inequalities and positive destinations towards the games industry. The project involved a third sector social enterprise delivering economic regeneration and community-based support, an eight-person interdisciplinary team of game development students, and a practice-based research group exploring multiple themes of game-based research practice. The paper captures the experiences of student developers, young people, and engagement officers in reviewing the value and impact of the project. The intention of this paper is to present a case study of collaborative practice which shows positive impact on addressing community support outcomes for young adults within its service, with the potential to apply similar practices to wider initiatives related to outreach, engagement, and employability pathways.