A FORMER Bradford resident who is now a major figure in the computer games industry returned to his home city as keynote speaker at the Yorkshire Games Festival.

Mohammed “Iki” Ikram grew up in Manningham, and now lives and works in Santa Monica as a top 3D generalist and VFX artist who has been been involved in hit games including The Last Of Us and the Uncharted series.

Mr Ikram, 50, was the main speaker at the five day festival, which has also featured appearances from videogame writer Martin Korda and David Wise, who has composed music for games like Donkey Kong Country.

The festival will continue this weekend with numerous gaming events for families throughout the National Science and Media Museum, which is hosting the festival.

Before his talk at the museum yesterday, Mr Ikram had returned to Bradford College to speak to a group of 100 pupils about his time at the college and his road to international success.

He told the Telegraph & Argus that he got his first computer in the early 80s when he was 14, adding: “I had two paper round to save up for that computer. I had one at 5am and another at 4pm, I got £4 a week for it. I eventually had enough to get it from Eric’s of Bradford. It cost £250 and it took two years to save for it. I told my parents I would use it for education, but there was no way any kids would be using the education software. There weren’t many people with computers then.

“To be honest at the time I didn’t think of where games came from, that it was someone’s job to make them, I never thought there was a company somewhere paying people to do it.

“I was really inspired to get into the industry by movies than by games. When I first saw Star Wars I thought ‘That’s what I want to do.’

“I loved movies like the Last Starfighter and Tron, I was inspired by all those kinds of movies.”

Talking about his time at Bradford College he said: “I love this college, all my passion came from studying here. Even though my career has no relationship with the work of David Hockney, I always mention to people I went to the same school as him.”

This weekend will see events including The Displaced, a live action role playing game that runs today and tomorrow from 1.30pm, and involves players moving through the whole of the city centre.

Live comedy gameshow WiFi Wars will be held in the Pictureville cinema tomorrow at 2pm, and the ticketed event invites people to bring their smartphones or tablets and “battle” each other is a mass gaming experience.

There will be Minecraft workshops and gaming displays and sessions throughout the museum on both days.

For the full lineup visit scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/whats-on/yorkshire-games-festival