An indie game developer says they were left “devastated” after being informed that a trailer for their game had been pulled from the BAFTA Games Awards, 24 hours before the event.
The Quiet Things is described as an “autobiographical narrative adventure” inspired by developer Alex Jones’s real childhood memories. The game deals with themes around childhood abuse, self-harm, and suicide, and, according to its developer, aims to tackle shame around these issues and open conversations.
Jones told VGC that a trailer for The Quiet Things was due to be aired during Friday’s BAFTA Games Awards ceremony, but it was pulled the evening before the event, a decision she said was “difficult” for development team Silver Script Games.
“Last night, on my way to the nominees’ party, I got a phone call telling me that the trailer for my indie game The Quiet Things had been pulled from the BAFTA Games Awards 2026, due to its content,” Jones recalled in a LinkedIn post.
“I then walked into the nominees’ party after crying and cleaning myself up, and heard BAFTA on stage, paraphrasing from memory, talking about how proud they were to champion games that deal with difficult and challenging subject matter. That was very hard to hear.”
BAFTA has since confirmed the decision, citing themes it believes could have been a trigger for some in its audience, which it claims it did not have sufficient time to warn them about.
In a statement, a BAFTA spokesperson said: “We made a compliance decision not to show a trailer of an unreleased game that contains themes that may be a trigger for some, in consideration of our guests as we were not in a position to sufficiently warn them. We fully support games that engage with difficult subjects, and we made the decision in relation to our event only and with the wellbeing of all guests as our priority.”
Jones claimed that The Quiet Things’ development team had already made cuts to the trailer based on BAFTA’s feedback, removing scenes containing weapons and violence. When they offered to make further changes, they claimed the request did not receive a response.
“The Quiet Things is deeply personal to me,” Jones said. “It’s my story. It’s about trauma, abuse, survival, and giving survivors a voice. It’s about people being shut down and silenced, and what that does to them. So there is something deeply painful about reliving that again now. Art should make people feel something.”
Silver Script Games has now published the trailer planned for the BAFTA Games Awards, which is embedded above.
BAFTA included a trailer for IO Interactive’s 007: First Light in Friday’s ceremony, but claims that any such inclusions are based on editorial decisions, rather than commercial incentives.