Grads In Games

Our winners of Search For A Star & Rising Star 2024 💚 After several months of work, Search For A Star has come to a close and we have this year's winners!   Breaking records once again with 1480 students from 144 universities & colleges taking part, this year’s Search for A Star & Rising Star game development challenges are the largest we’ve ever seen! Each challenge tasks students with completing a game project to an industry brief, either in games programming, game design, environment art, character art, animation or VFX. Projects are reviewed by our team of industry assessors, with the highest scoring being selected as finalists. These finalists faced interview panels of industry professionals from leading studios, including including d3t, Red Kite Games, 10:10 Games, Furious Bee Limited, Airship Interactive, Rocksteady Studios Ltd, Sumo Digital Ltd, Fuse Games, CCP Games, Cloud Imperium Games, Awe Interactive, IMPRNT STUDIOS LTD, Wushu Studios, Mythica, Expression Games, Steel City Interactive, Ground Shatter, and Lucid Games Ltd. Our interview judges spoke to our finalists about their game development skills as well as their career aspirations, before deciding on this year’s Search For A Star and Rising Star winners. We’re very happy to confirm all of this year’s category winners across both Search For A Star (students graduating this year) & Rising Star (graduating 2025 or later). These people represent some of the most highly developed students across gamedev, proving their knowledge, skill and ambition through the course of the challenge.   A huge congratulations to: SFAS Games Animation Winner Philip Do Middlesex University RS Games Animation Winner Maja Bogdanienko Breda University of Applied Sciences SFAS Games VFX Winner Mishel Soghoyan University of Hertfordshire RS Games VFX Winner Evan Goddard Futureworks   SFAS Game Design Winner Ian O'Flaherty Brunel University London RS Game Design Winner Jonathon Mayes AP Hogeschool Antwerpen   SFAS Character Art Winner Em Marshall Futureworks   RS Character Art Winner Zahra Sufiya T. University of Hertfordshire   SFAS Environment Art Winner Berenika Zemanek Abertay University   RS Environment Art Winner Jacob Foster University of South Wales   SFAS Games Programming Winner Tanapat Somrid Abertay University   RS Games Programming Winner Dmitrii Kolchin University for the Creative Arts Congratulations again to all of our winners, and also to all who took part in this year's challenges! I've hit the mention limit on LinkedIn, so I'll be talking more about finals day, our partners and more across the week 💚 A huge thanks to all of our studio partners supporting Grads In Games this year & enabling us to run the Search For A Star challenges: d3t and Coconut Lizard, 10:10 Games, Red Kite Games, Furious Bee and PlusMusic, and to our prize providers at Adobe Substance 3D & Escape Technology https://lnkd.in/eciTv4Vs

Programming grads 👀👇 Activision are dropping one hell of a care package!

Some more advice for those going down to Develop, the secret important things that usually get left out of the usual tips posts : 🦅 Brighton seagulls are monstrous beasts made of muscle and venom 🍟 Seagulls will swoop anything that looks like food & steal it from your hands 💩 Everyone gets hit by a seagull poop at least once. If it hasn't happened yet, assume it happens this time. 👕 Bring more spare clothes than you think you need, because poop. 🧼 Hand sanitiser. People are sweaty & sticky & like shaking hands. 🍅 Sunscreen, hats, light layers. 🃏 Business cards are, annoyingly, still useful. For a tech industry a surprising amount of people aren't great with scanning QRs or tech awareness 💡 Hire and train more people at entry-level or this industry's unsustainable 🍻 Don't get wasted at free bars, or you'll always be known as that person 🚰 If it's hot out, you're better off sticking to water and zero/low-sugar soft drinks 🥗 Schedule in a decent amount of time for lunch, and eat properly 🍟 That chip shop isn't the good one 🥪 Bring along a selection of snacks and drinks you can keep at your hotel. Brunch bars, pot noodles, bottled water etc. 💚 Come to our meetup and say hi to me : https://lu.ma/bifzw46w

We're in Brighton this week for the Develop conference + hosting a meetup on Wednesday that everyone's welcome at 💚 Pop by for a relaxing afternoon by the beach and meet with other devs plus Dan and the GiG team. info : https://lu.ma/bifzw46w

If you're off to Develop next week & haven't been before, some general tips about going to events in unfamiliar places (and familiar ones) from the Grads In Games community. Develop's usually one of the friendliest gamedev events and has a good rep but you should still always be sensible about stuff. Even without Develop Brighton's a busy place with a lot of people, plus there's multiple parties spread out *and* the football on. I'll be around at various places - if you know me from GiG feel free to wave me over whether it's to say hi, have a chat, or just to have someone large and imposing stand with you for a bit. Some general but non-exhaustive tips for staying safe at physical events: ✅ Have someone you can check-in with about where you are, where you'll be and who you're with, just in case. 🗺 Make sure *you* know where you are and how to get around / get back. Don't wander off with that rando. 🚁 Have some idea of what to do & who to contact if you need help, support or an exit plan, even if you don't expect you'll need it. ⚠ Be sensible about drinking / around alcohol. Keep an eye on your drinks. 📔 Write down important shit like contact numbers & have some physical cash available. Know what to do if you lose your phone or wallet. 👀 Related to above : don't keep your phone or wallet in your back pocket. 🤝 Travel in a group or bring a friend along if you can. 💯 Water. Food. Sleep. You need enough of each or you'll have a bad time. 🔋 Make time for breaks or quiet time, especially with large or busy events that can get overwhelming. 🏃♂️ you can leave!!! You have *zero obligation* to stick around or do anything if you're uncomfortable or not enjoying it. 📱 Charge your phone! Keep it charged! Bring a spare/portable charger!

For Games Careers Week, I'm running a couple of free guidance + Q&A sessions over on the GiG Twitch channel covering some of the most commonly asked about topics: CVs and portfolios. Aimed at grads, but open to all and will have relevance to pretty much all levels of jobseeker. 🔥 CVs + Job Applications; mythbusting and best practice 📅 Thursday 27th, 4pm I'll be doing a load of mythbusting on the weird things people believe about CVs and job applications, and showing you how to set up your CV in a way that we know works. Join me as I help you to navigate through all the 'rules' and 'advice' around CVs & job applications. 🤷♂️ Get your portfolio right; best practice + Q&A 📅 Friday 28th, 4pm I'll be going over key guidance for portfolios, including why they're important for everyone (not just artists). I'll also be doing some more specific breakdown in areas where there's a bit more confusion & loose definitions, including concept art, narrative and design. For both sessions I'll stick around for Q&A as well so if there's anything you ever wanted to ask about, come and have a chat!

For Games Careers Week, I'm running a couple of free guidance + Q&A sessions over on the GiG Twitch channel covering some of the most commonly asked about topics: CVs and portfolios. Aimed at grads, but open to all and will have relevance to pretty much all levels of jobseeker. 🔥 CVs + Job Applications; mythbusting and best practice 📅 Thursday 27th, 4pm I'll be doing a load of mythbusting on the weird things people believe about CVs and job applications, and showing you how to set up your CV in a way that we know works. Join me as I help you to navigate through all the 'rules' and 'advice' around CVs & job applications. 🤷♂️ Get your portfolio right; best practice + Q&A 📅 Friday 28th, 4pm I'll be going over key guidance for portfolios, including why they're important for everyone (not just artists). I'll also be doing some more specific breakdown in areas where there's a bit more confusion & loose definitions, including concept art, narrative and design. For both sessions I'll stick around for Q&A as well so if there's anything you ever wanted to ask about, come and have a chat!

🕹 Our two day Careers Fair is in full flow! 🎮⁠ It's brilliant seeing so many fantastic interactions from students and teachers alike with all our amazing exhibitors who are on hand to explore the various pathways available into the games and creative industries. The Sheffield College games design students are also on hand by hosting a variety of game making workshops during the event that all visitors can take part in.⁠ Kids Invent Stuff Sheffield United Community Foundation Grads In Games NextGen Skills Academy OWLS Esports Boneloaf Sumo Digital Ltd Academy Skills Street Playground Games Sheffield Hallam University Team17 Digital Amazelab Sheffield Futures #careers #careersfair #creativeindustry #games #jobsingames #videogames

Going to Develop? Skip the crowded bars and meeting rooms and come hang out by the beach with us. Open to anybody in or out of the industry, this relaxed networking meetup is a great opportunity to chat with studios and devs from across games (and us!). 📅 Wednesday 10th July 🕐 1pm - 4pm Why leave the comfort of a claustrophobic convention? ✨ You can hear people talk and there's loads of seating 🚁 Make new connections with industry-positive people from across gamedev 🎉 BONUS: learn how studios and devs can benefit from the work GiG does (If you're not able to make it but would still like to have a chat with us, I do also have a couple of meeting slots free - search Dan Dudley on the Develop MeetToMatch or pop me a dm.) https://lu.ma/bifzw46w

Going to Develop? Skip the crowded bars and meeting rooms and come hang out by the beach with us. Open to anybody in or out of the industry, this relaxed networking meetup is a great opportunity to chat with studios and devs from across games (and us!). 📅 Wednesday 10th July 🕐 1pm - 4pm Why leave the comfort of a claustrophobic convention? ✨ You can hear people talk and there's loads of seating 🚁 Make new connections with industry-positive people from across gamedev 🎉 BONUS: learn how studios and devs can benefit from the work GiG does (If you're not able to make it but would still like to have a chat with us, I do also have a couple of meeting slots free - search Dan Dudley on the Develop MeetToMatch or pop me a dm.) https://lu.ma/bifzw46w