Daniel’s gaming family

Daniel Hailes wowed the judges with his entry which described how his video gaming family, the ‘Hailes Stoners” would throw snow objects at obstacles to rescue their mum, who is trapped in the ice tower, with the rest of the family’s special powers including melting ice, freezing water, translating ice language, in order to save her. Ruby their dog, would also be part of the game, helping to protect the family from the ice yetis.

Daniel has now won a top of the range Microsoft Kinect for Xbox 360 games console, which doesn’t require a controller, just voice and gesture, and four great family video games.

On hearing he’d won the regional prize, Daniel said: “I’m so pleased that I’ve won. I love playing video games and using my imagination to do well in them and I can’t wait to try my new Kinect for Xbox 360.”

Julie Hailes, Daniel’s mum, said: “We love playing video games as a family as I like the way that these days games have an educational element so it can be a fun way to encourage numeracy and literacy skills too. As a family we can have fun together and introduce elements of competition and it’s also a good way to encourage family discussions. I think that it’s important that the kids feel we’re interested in what they enjoy too - as long as homework is completed well, it’s a welcome reward.”

The competition was launched on the www.askaboutgames.com website, which is an on-going resource featuring top tips for parents whose family play video games. The competition asked children aged 4 to 15 years old to describe their families as video games characters, with questions including what the name of their video gaming family would be, what the aim of their game would be and how their family’s special skills would work together.

Daniel and his family have now been put forward as one of four regional finalists, one of whom will win the opportunity to become an overall winner and have their family transformed into video games characters by a top video games designer. They will also be named PEGI Family Gaming Ambassadors and have the opportunity to receive and test games together, to be reviewed on askaboutgames.com and appear in videos to be featured on the website.

Jo Twist, Chief Executive of Ukie said: “We launched this competition as we know that video games are a great way to bring families together. They can also fuel children’s creativity, which has been further demonstrated by the excellent entries we’ve received for this competition.

“We’re delighted that Daniel and his family have been chosen as the regional winners. We loved his competition entry and the way he used his creativity to come up with some great characters who all worked together to achieve a great outcome. We very much hope he’ll have lots of fun playing his new console with his family.”