A FIVE day celebration of the computer games industry has begun with an event for local schools.

The Yorkshire Games Festival will see top figures from the gaming industry descend on the city, as well as numerous events for gamers of all ages.

Today saw young people invited into the National Science and Media Museum, which is hosting the festival, to learn how to create games and take part in design workshops.

Today there will be talks by Arthur Parsons from TT Games, who helped create the latest Lego Marvel Super Heroes Game and videogame writer Martin Korda. From 6.30pm there will be a Lates event for over 18s that will give people the chance to play games from all eras.

Tomorrow keynote speaker, Bradford born Iki Ikram, will talk about how he became an award winning VFX artist.

Over the weekend there will be a WiFi Wars event in the Pictureville Cinema, live action role playing, a Minecraft workshop and gaming sessions throughout the museum.

Kathryn Penny, festival director, said: "We have a two day conference programme and then a big family weekend with plenty of opportunities for gameplay.

"We've had young people take part in a coding club for the last 10 weeks, and people will be able to play the games they have created.

"We'll also be having Gamesmaster style game guru sessions and the WiFi Wars, a live show where people will be able to play on their phones against each other.

"There will also be a Yorkshire Games Showcase where developers will be getting people to Beta test their games.

"At the Lates we'll be having games from as far back as Aztec times. 

"Last year's festival attracted about 7,600 people, and we're hoping we'll get even more this year."

For more information, visit scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/whats-on/yorkshire-games-festival