A video game developer from Whitby is part of a team which has just been awarded a BAFTA.
Mark Peart, is a lead animator for independent video games studio Rebellion, which has been named winner of the Best British Game category at The BAFTA Games Awards (British Academy Games Awards).
Just like the BAFTA Film Awards, they are held in London each year to honour “outstanding creative achievement” in the video game industry.
Mark worked as part of the development team on Atomfall – a survival-action game inspired by real-life events and set five years after a nuclear disaster in Northern England.
Players have to explore the fictional quarantine zone, scavenge, craft, barter, fight and talk their way through a British countryside setting filled with bizarre characters, mysticism, cults, and rogue government agencies.
He said the win was a first for Rebellion, which has been in business for more than 30 years and won awards in that time, but never a BAFTA.
Mark said: “I have got a small part of a BAFTA, but it’s a huge team effort to make a game. It is awesome to be able to say I was a part of achieving the BAFTA though.”
And he did it from his home office here in Whitby.
Mark has been in the industry for 14 years. He studied creative digital media at the University of Teesside and worked in Scotland, Manchester and Oxford before coming home to raise his young family.
He says it is possible to pursue careers in gaming and the arts – and do it from Whitby.
“I used to be a plasterer and got sick of building sites”, he said. “One of my friends was an animator for a company in America and I was into games when I was younger. I did A Levels and got into university.
“Everyone thinks you have to move to a city, and I did but there are jobs out there you can do from home here.
“There are still those barriers. Some of my friends’ kids who are older think you can only be a scaffolder – and that is totally fine – but they think there are no other options because no-one is pushing them through those doors.”
Mark has also founded what has become a cult clothing brand in town, Shreds 11. It started as a creative side hustle two years ago but has become a business in itself.
The brand, and following, has already grown far beyond his expectations, taking over his spare time, not to mention his office.
With his own printing set up at home, he designs and prints Shreds 11 branded clothing – as well as garments for other local organisations including Lads, Dads and Grandads, Whitby Jets and Fishburn Park FC.
When he started Shreds 11, the idea was to create a brand his own children and young people in Whitby would recognise and was affordable with a nod to extreme sports such as BMX, mountain-biking and skate-boarding.
It started with a few t-shirts, long-sleeved jerseys and hoodies. Demand grew and Mark now sponsors young people getting into these sports.
He recalls: “I was going to start small and see if people liked it. They thought it was a good idea, then my friends’ kids started getting into it. Now it is going from strength to strength and I trademarked the name Shreds 11.
“The community we are building seems to be getting out of hand which is great. I didn’t expect it to get like this but there is a mini cult following. A lot of these sports are underfunded, niche and under the radar and I am open to helping where we can, especially if it is local.”
