An ISLE of Wight man has won a prestigious award for videogames at an independent festival in America – one of the largest events of its kind.

Lee Williams, of Newport, travelled all the way to San Francisco to pick up his trophy at the IGF Awards ceremony, which is part of the Game Developers Conference.

The 48-year-old won an award for excellence in design for the dungeon adventure game Cryptmaster, which he had been working on for the past three years.

“The game is a word-based, dungeon-crawling puzzle RPG with spooky, light-hearted atmosphere,” said Lee.

It is due for release on May 9 for PC, with a PlayStation port coming in the summer.

Lee wrote the dialogue, designed the game, and also provided the voice of the titular character.

He worked with his friend, Paul Hart, who is based in New Zealand and was responsible for all the coding and artwork.

“We were thrilled and genuinely surprised to take home the award in a category which included some phenomenal competition,” said Lee.

“The trip to San Francisco was surreal in the best of ways.

“My family on the Island stayed up to watch the awards show, and my sons Arthur and Caspar were pleased to see I gave the speech with one of their favourite toys, a tiny red dinosaur, peeking from my pocket.”

Lee has a background in education and has taught at several Island schools, most recently at Oakfield in Ryde.

In 2019, he went full-time as a writer and games developer.

The father-of-two has lived on the Isle of Wight all his life, save for five years when he worked in China.