Earlier in August supported by MyWorld we hosted eight 18-30s(ish) creatives, technologists and practitioners for our 4th annual Make Shift Camp. From Monday 17 – Friday 21 August the campers had 5 days to design, test, and build concepts for games, and shared back their prototypes at the end of the week.

The key question they asked was:

What if the next big thing in video games was something you could climb into, lean against, sweat through, or accidentally knock over?

Introducing the Campers

Abbi Bayliss (she/her) 

Abbi is an illustrator and facilitator from Bristol. Her work centres around cultural heritage, education and storytelling. She runs weekly workshops, with young people and adults, playfully experimenting with creative tech. Abbi is also a Trustee of RWA Art Gallery, board member of the National Blue Plaques panel and Young Advisor of Historic England, as a champion of institutional change and leadership. Her most recent work is a project exhibited at Watershed last month with University of Bristol. Inspired through young people workshops, their creative outputs informed an interactive, illustrative AR mind map, exploring young people’s perspectives on AI. 

Abbi says:

I’m excited to test my skills, creative problem solving and collaboration. Gamifying the physical world with the digital world is a challenge I'm ready to be intrigued and inspired by!

Flynn Fitzgerald (she/they) 

Flynn is a South-West based writer whose work is dark, funny and emotionally complex, often utilising conventions of horror and magical realism to explore political themes. She was previously writer in residence with Broken Silence Theatre and recently graduated with an MA in Drama Writing from Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Her recent projects include Sluts With Consoles (UK Tour, 2025), Little Sister (The Glitch, 2026) and The Ballad Of Hedra Blight (The Writers Room, 2026). 

Flynn says:

I'm really excited to explore a different way of storytelling and the possibilites of games as a medium for storytelling and what could happen when an audience are active participants with autonomy over how the narrative plays out, rather than passive observers.

Vikki Brooke (she/her) 

Hello, I’m Vikki, a full stack software developer who enjoys building things and trying out different tech. In my spare time I like making apps which make my life easier and using raspberry pis to build pointless fun things. Other enjoyments include a bit of baking and cycling. 

Vikki says:

I am excited about collaborating with others to build and develop something fun and new!

Maria Fijalkowski (fae/faer she/her) 

Descendant of French peasants in the Midi, English miners in Yorkshire and Middle class officers in Poland, with a couple generations of settlers in Algeria. Maria is the playful clown, forest floor goddess and dark rat girl guide, each of these ancestry lines was waiting for. Here to play well, to the bitter end and to witness the strategy and drama in your hands. I see when I play with you, freedom and power. I craft cards, events and experiences that leave you wandering, changed and connected. 

Maria says:

I am so excited to experience the well-being and glow of working together in a creative, silly, loose and committed way! Three cheers for the ensemble, and to my fellow campers, I say looking forward to meeting you each day!

Ayşe Uysal (she/her) 

Ayşe is a recent Robotics graduate, wanting to combine her creative passions with her love of Robotics and further delve into the world of creative technologies.  She has a particular interest in the ethics and morality of robotics, how the increasing integration of robots and AI into society may affect human interpersonal relationships, and enjoys seeing these themes artistically represented.  

Ayşe says:

I’m super excited to work with and gain inspiration from the other Campers, and to rediscover games from a new perspective as a lover of all types of games, video and video-less alike!

James Rennie (He/Him) 

James is studying for a masters in computer science and is interested in changing the way we interact with technology to make it feel more magical. He's worked on some software engineering projects with local charities, as well as university projects and some personal games projects too. Outside of coding he also enjoy competing in robot wars competitions and sewing new bags for my bike, to go on multi day bike packing trips. 

James says:

Using a keyboard, mouse and screen is so overdone. I’m excited to change it up and try out something new and exciting to make games more interesting.

Tara Nelson (she/her) 

By night, Tara is the escaped Cold War experiment and ghostly 8bit dollgirl  EYRE. Dressed from head to toe in lights and clutching a pair of gameboys, Tara is a frequent (masked) face at noise, synth, queercore and cabaret shows around Bristol. By day, Tara  illustrates comics, develops for the web, and works as an impact data analyst, helping local communities to direct social action efforts across the region.  

Tara says: 

I love a tight deadline, and I'm thrilled to be working with and learning from a group of highly skilled discipline-crossing creatives on something test-able and tangible, sharing it right away with a public audience.

Leo V (they/he)

Leo is a multimedia artist and animation producer, who loves to make story-focused projects and various degrees of interactive design. He’s behind Living Creatures, a creative production studio for animation and film. Leo (they/he) is a multimedia artist and animation producer, who loves to make story-focused projects and various degrees of interactive design. He’s behind Living Creatures, a creative production studio for animation and film. Leo’s big career question is how to make games seem like they don't have game boundaries, and how to make those experiences as compelling and immersive as more established narrative arts. 

Leo says:

I always prefer to work collaboratively, and when my practice has been so ankle-deep in screen arts, the idea of video-less games really lets me focus on what makes good game design, rather than just a film you can interact with. 

Make Shift is made possible with support from Arts Council England and Bristol City Council. Our Make Shift Camp is additionally supported by MyWorld and our partners in Pervasive Media Studio, UWE Bristol and University of Bristol.