Game Republic Student Showcase 2010

The Game Republic Student Showcase 2010 is a fantastic opportunity for final-year and postgraduate games course students from any higher education establishment in Yorkshire & Humber to showcase their best work to the biggest developers in the region including Team17, Rockstar Leeds, Sumo Digital and Just Add Water. Last year's Student Showcase featured over 70 students and 23 projects.

Prizes are awarded for 1st, 2nd or 3rd place in four categories: the Team17 Game Design award, the Sumo Digital Game Technology award, the Just Add Water Game Art award and the Rockstar Leeds Best Team award - which last year resulted in a work placement for five graduates from the University of Huddersfield, with one team member gaining full-time employment at the prestigious Yorkshire games development studio behind the global smash hit Grand Theft Auto series on portable gaming systems.

After the Game Republic Student Showcase award presentations, a talk entitled, “Great idea, but how will it work? Internal concepting for PlayStation” will be given to students and industry attendees by Jed Ashforth, Game Director, and Hal Sandbach, Senior Designer, from SCEE Studio Liverpool.

Jamie Sefton, Sector Manager of Game Republic at Screen Yorkshire says: “The Game Republic Student Showcase is an essential annual event that forges stronger links between academia and the games industry in the Yorkshire region. We’ve already had proven success at keeping the best games graduate talent in the region, and I look forward to seeing more examples of this happening as a result of the 2010 event.”

Damian De Luca, Digital Media Subject Area Leader at the University of Huddersfield adds: "We are delighted to be hosting the third annual Game Republic Student Showcase at Huddersfield. We believe that the region’s universities and games companies are strengthened and the curriculum enhanced by the event.”

Yorkshire and Humber has 3 of the top 100 most successful game studios (source: Develop 100, 2010), in a hugely successful UK games development region that hosts more than 30 games companies including Rockstar Leeds (Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars), Team17 (Worms, Alien Breed Evolution), Sumo Digital (Doctor Who: The Adventure Games, SEGA & Sonic All-Stars Racing), Route 1 Games (Puzzler Collection), Just Add Water Ltd (Gravity Crash), Tuna (Cletus Clay) and Revolution Software (Broken Sword).

TO SIGN UP:

Yorkshire & Humber-based universities or lecturers that would like to enter final-year and postgraduate students into this FREE event should contact Kelly Jakeman at the University of Huddersfield - k.d.jakeman@hud.ac.uk

Games companies that would like to attend the evening networking event only from 5.30pm should sign up at: http://gamerepublic-studentshowcase.eventbrite.com

To find out more about the Game Republic Student Showcase, watch Screen Yorkshire’s vodcast from last year's event at: http://bit.ly/gr-student-showcase-09

Media Enquiries:

Rachel McWatt, Marketing & Communications Officer

Screen Yorkshire

t. +44 (0) 113 236 8224

e. rachel@screenyorkshire.co.uk

Game Republic, the industry-led games network for Yorkshire and Humber, promotes and provides support to games companies in the region through a range of initiatives, investing in games projects, creating better links with academia, developing relationships with international publishers and championing collaboration through hosting regular networking events. In 2007 Game Republic was fully integrated into Screen Yorkshire enabling the games sector in the region to access its strategic investment funds. www.gamerepublic.org

Screen Yorkshire is the regional screen agency responsible for inspiring, promoting and supporting a successful and sustainable film, television, games and interactive media sector in Yorkshire and Humber. Our aim is to grow the screen media industries in Yorkshire and Humber by helping businesses to compete in a fast-changing global marketplace. Screen Yorkshire offers a variety of funding and support initiatives to screen media companies based in the region, supported by its two key partners, Yorkshire Forward and the UK Film Council. Since the launch of its £10.2m Digital Media Content Programme in 2006, Screen Yorkshire has attracted over £62 million inward investment to the region’s economy, created 824 jobs, supported 805 businesses and invested in the skills of 1457 individuals. For further information, visit: www.screenyorkshire.co.uk

NOTES TO EDITOR:

Screen Yorkshire media enquiries

Rachel McWatt, Marketing & Communications Officer

t. +44 (0) 113 236 8224

e. rachel@screeenyorkshire.co.uk

Jamie Sefton, Sector Manager Game Republic

t. +44 (0) 113 236 8239

m. +44 (0) 7776 121 605

e. jamie@screenyorkshire.co.uk