YOUNG people in Bradford are invited to add their voices, music and ideas to a new computer game which re-imagines areas of the district as futuristic 'dream neighbourhoods'.

Bradford: The Game, developed by Impact Gamers and Bradford 2025, is now ready to play online on a PC or mobile device.

The project has been led by the Bafta-winning team behind Bradford-based Impact Gamers, which uses game-making as a tool to mentor and help young people build confidence and new friendships.

The Impact Gamers team has worked closely with the Creative Media department at Shipley College, and students have created characters and developed ideas and levels for the game. They have transformed different areas of Bradford into their ‘dream neighbourhood’ - creating an alternative, futuristic Bradford. Young people have been given creative control, adding rollercoasters instead of cars and buses, a ‘recycling truck drone’ which can collect litter and turn it into something useful within minutes and ‘rapid growth pods’ to grow more trees. The game is now playable and will continue to evolve over time, with new characters, sounds and music added over time.

Players guide their chosen character through various postcodes of the Bradford district, which act as the ‘levels’ of the game, challenged with different missions. The game will evolve over time, with additions submitted by players.

The team behind Bradford’s bid to be UK City of Culture 2025 is calling on 11 to 18-year-olds across the district to add their voices and music to the video game. It is one of ways the bid team is engaging with Bradford's young population in the bidding process, before the final bid is submitted later this year.

Impact Gamers is a community interest company that encourages young people to be not just game players but games makers.

Founder Adam Syrop said: “The initial response to Bradford: The Game has been fantastic, with some incredible ideas from young people. One of the beauties of the game is that it can keep being added to and tweaked, so there’s still the chance to add your ideas. We would love to see some more audio for the characters recorded by young people - if you think you could give us a happy noise, an injured grunt, a jumping "Huup!" or a cheer, send your ideas to us. We’d love to hear from any budding musicians too, as we want to add more music into this ever updating game.”

Shipley College Creative Media student Subhaan Mohammad Khurram, who has been working on the game, said: "In phase one we had to talk about where we lived and how we would like to see it in the future, and in phase two we were given the task of drawing a character for the game. We had to give it a name and say what special skills it had. I drew a character named Yui, she's like a cat girl, she uses talons as a weapon. We also got involved in level design. I was really pleased when I got the email to say my character had been chosen. She has developed more into a fox girl now."

* Anyone keen to play or get involved with Bradford: The Game are asked to visit impactgamers.net/2025 or contact 2025@impactgamers.net