Search for a Star

University Challenge

The participation of universities is crucial to Search for a Star, and we have dedicated a lot of time to contacting those with relevant courses whose students might want to participate. We have excellent relationships in place with many UK universities due to our efforts over the last six years.

We've organised and carried out an annual tour of university visits, where we hold careers talks and offer CV advice. We recently sat on a panel at Leicester University to advise on the content of their course and give annual reviews of course content and structure.

Universities have therefore been happy to back Search for a Star - they've nominated students and publicised the competition, making sure that everyone who might want to participate gets a chance. Additionally, course leaders find the competition useful to see where their students rank compared to other universities and we're able to give them and the students a practical idea of what standard and skills the games industry expect.

Studio Involvement

The other vital component of the competition is the input and involvement of the games studios - having them on board adds credibility to the competition and everything we are trying to achieve with it.

Universities, students and other games companies can feel confident that graduates who have reached the final stages in Search for a Star are exactly the types of graduates with the technical ability and the passion to enter the videogames industry.

This year we are proud to confirm that we have three studios involved: Relentless Software, Rockstar Leeds and Headstrong Games. All of the studios make great games and have a real passion and interest in the issues surrounding junior programmers.

Lizi Attwood (Relentless) is a lead programmer and is active with SkillSet, so therefore was a great person to get on board. Lizi wrote all of the programming questions, based upon the skills she looks for when recruiting junior programmers.

Rockstar Leeds was another obvious choice - the team there looks for the best talent in the industry and would be keen to take on more junior programmers, providing they were at the required standard. Every year the company offers internships and looks for people with the same passion and interest in games that their founders and leads display.

Headstrong games meanwhile has consistently taken on junior programmers over the last few years, believing them to be integral to the studio - so is very pleased to be involved.

The End Result

We're pleased to offer prizes to the winner and runners-up that will help them on their way to a career in videogames. We've secured work placements at Relentless Software, Rockstar Leeds and Headstrong Games - all companies that will provide hands-on experience to winners to give them an even greater chance of securing a role in a games studio.

We have also teamed up with Gamer Camp to offer the winner a place on their Mini games camp. The prizes are designed to allow the finalists to build their CV/portfolio and make them more marketable to the industry.

Gamer Camp in particular is a great partner for the competition, as the company hopes its Camps can solve the same problem we've identified. During the Camp the students produce real games that will be released on iPhone or PlayStation Portable. They receive coaching and support from top industry professionals and gain skills, training, and experience from all stages of the games development process. Guy Wilday, former Studio Director at SEGA Racing Studio, is running the course with Birmingham City University.

We are very excited that so many universities are taking part this year. There's a real buzz around the competition and the applications have been flooding in. The 2010 winner is currently having interviews at some of the country's leading videogames companies and many of our finalists are working with leading studios, such as Lionhead and Codemasters - which really shows that we're highlighting the right types of candidates.

We hope that the 2011 competition will be bigger and better than last year - you'll be able to follow our progress with regular updates on GamesIndustry.biz, as well as our official Facebook page.