London, U.K. – On September 24, 2012, The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) announced Harvey Elliott as the new Chairman of its Games Committee.  Harvey replaces Ray Maguire whose term as Chairman ended in July, but remains on the Committee as an elected member.  Harvey is the Managing Director and COO of Marmalade, a leading cross-platform software technology business, and oversees the Ideaworks Game Studio under the same company group.

Starting September 24, 2012 the British Academy Games Awards in 2013 open for entries. The Awards include one new category, Best British Game, that celebrates the best game across all platforms created by a British development studio.

For the first time this year, studios and developers will qualify for one complimentary game entry if they enter their games into the Awards before Monday October 22, 2012, helping the Awards to be as inclusive as possible.

Campaigning has also been introduced, which brings the Awards into line with BAFTA’s other annual Awards ceremonies.  More information on this and the entry process, rules and guidelines can be found at www.bafta.org/games.

Harvey Elliott, Chairman of the BAFTA Games Committee, said: “I am looking forward to developing BAFTA’s games strategy during my new Chairmanship.  As part of this, I am very excited to announce our new Best British Game category, giving us the opportunity to reward thegreat wealth of British talent in our industry.

In addition, we are offering a complimentary entry to each company, making the Awards more accessible, particularly to those smaller developers, and hopefully seeing more games being put forward for consideration than ever before.”
Comedian and gamer Dara O’Briain will host the Awards ceremony for the fifth year running, which takes place on Tuesday March 5, 2013 at the London Hilton, Park Lane.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is an independent charity that supports, develops and promotes the artforms of the moving image by identifying and rewarding excellence, inspiring practitioners and benefiting the public.

In addition to its Awards ceremonies, BAFTA has a year-round Learning & Events programme that offers unique access to some of the world’s most inspiring talent through workshops, masterclasses, lectures and mentoring schemes, connecting with audiences of all ages and backgrounds across the UK, Los Angeles and New York. BAFTA relies on income from membership subscriptions, individual donations, trusts, foundations and corporate partnerships to support its ongoing outreach work. For further information, visit www.bafta.org.

Harvey joined Ideaworks3D Ltd in June 2012 as Managing Director & COO, overseeing the Ideaworks Game Studio, and the Marmaladetechnology; that enables game and app developers to create rich content to release across a multitude of mobile devices, phones, tablets smart TVs anddesktop computers. Prior to joining Marmalade, Harvey was VP, General Manager of Bright Light at Electronic Arts (EA) driving intellectual properties targeting family and mainstream audiences including the Harry Potter game franchise.

Harvey has been in the games industry for nearly 20 years in a number of studio leadership roles and with a title roster which has included multiple Harry Potter titles, Crazy Taxi, Alias, Dakar Rally 2 and Burnout 3: Takedown amongst many more. Prior to joining EA in 2003, he was Studio General Manager of the Cheltenham Studio for Acclaim Entertainment, with overall responsibility for Acclaim’s Teesside and London studios.  Harvey is also Chair of the BAFTA Children’s Committee.

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