20 Aug Northampton Games Network launches competition with Northampton Film Festival
The new Northampton Games Network and Northampton Film Festival (NFF) are inviting Games developers from across England to enter their games and prototypes into Northampton Film Festival 2026. Shortlisted games will be displayed during the festival with the winners announced at the festival’s official awards ceremony.
The Northampton Games Network was formed after a sell-out Games networking event held earlier this year at The Performing Room with Games staff at the University of Northampton and The Creative Place, NFF’s new arts centre. The competition is looking for submissions of games from individuals or teams based in England which are original concepts and functional (with at least one playable level, title, and end screen) including a gameplay video.
According to Becky Carrier, NFF’s founder and director: “There is clearly a huge community of people interested in creating games in Northampton and, with games technology and Film being closer than ever, we wanted to offer something unique for the festival’s 5th birthday and something that would support closer collaboration between creatives in Northants, the Midlands and beyond. It’s inspiring to see all the different stories and concepts we get through film submissions and now we get to experience even more storytelling in this different medium.”
David Nicholls, Programme Leader for Games Design at the University of Northampton, says, “After we ran the first Northampton Games Network dev meet up earlier this year, we realised how much games talent is based locally. This will be a great opportunity to show how creatively diverse the Midlands are.”
Submissions can be made for free via itch.io by anyone living in England in either the Under 21yrs or 21yrs and Over categories. The shortlist of entries will be drawn up by the University of Northampton Games Department before being presented to industry judges to make the final decision. The winners will be announced at the NFF 2026 awards ceremony at the Royal Theatre Northampton on Sunday 8th March.
To read the full competition details and submit, visit https://itch.io/jam/nffxngn26
To be kept up to date about the Northampton Games Network, follow them on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/northampton-games-network/
To find out more about Northampton Film Festival, visit https://northamptonfilmfestival.co.uk
