XP (experience points) – XP isn’t just a number – it’s what keeps you going. It marks your progress, rewards your actions, and makes you feel like your character is growing with every quest, every fight, every choice. Experience is what makes you a hero.
And where best to get that experience than the Surrey Hills!
In early summer, Surrey Hills Arts invited young people into the landscape to explore nature in an exciting new way. The pilot project, Surrey Hills XP aimed to engage young people with nature through digital arts, develop their awareness of how nature can support their wellbeing, and raise their aspirations.
A nature wellbeing facilitator and three game designers worked collaboratively to engage the participants in nature-connection activities based on the five ways to wellbeing, whilst at the same time gamifying the landscape through narrative, risk, reward and feel-good interactions. The young people then spent two days at the University of Surrey’s Games Innovation Zone, where they fleshed out their game ideas inspired by their outdoor experiences at Holmbury Hill and Birtley Estate. They also got hands-on with computers, putting their creations into game engines. Evil geese, massive sand lizards, pirate frogs, invasions from Himalayan Balsam, hugging trees to gain power… So much adventure in the Surrey Hills!
The participants, who find accessing mainstream education a challenge, all gained AQA Unit accreditation, awarded by the Surrey Hills National Landscape. We are so proud of the young people’s commitment and achievement.
BA Game Design students from the university, Temi Ajao and Phoebe Fan (pictured), created fantastic digital artwork inspired by the game creations.