Meet the 100 rising stars of the UK games industry
Check out our interviews with the winners of this year's GamesIndustry.biz 100 | Sponsored by Amiqus
If the GamesIndustry.biz 100: Future Talent list is the indicator that we hope it is, then the future of the UK games industry is diverse.
Over half the 400 people nominated were not men, and over 60% of this list are either female or non-binary.
Yet more than that, look at the different cultures and nationalities that are represented. From across Europe, the US and Asia... the games industry is often criticised for its lack of broader representation, but if this list is anything to go by, the future will be very different.
Yet beyond the diversity in upbringing, check out the diversity in jobs. There are historians in this list, curators, journalists, data scientists - as well as sound engineers, artists, programmers, producers, publishers and so on.
There are young people on this list who are showing all the signs of future greatness, but also a few that have achieved massive success already. Some of this year's GamesIndustry.biz 100 have created and published numerous games, developed software for Nintendo, sold hundreds of thousands on Steam, and/or become leaders of their own companies.
Such is the nature of this young industry that it's perfectly possible to achieve incredible success before even reaching 30.
Yet there are also a few on this list that came to games later in life. Or took a little longer to find their true calling. And that's what we hope you'll take away from this year's GamesIndustry.biz 100. Whether you're 20 or 40, this is a business ripe for the shaping. So take a read through our 100 profiles, be inspired and try something cool.
And we'll see you on this list next time.
How the 100 was decided
This year, we asked the games industry to supply us with the most exciting rising stars working in the UK games industry. We accepted submissions from across the business, promoted the campaign heavily via GamesIndustry.biz and all our social channels, and we also directly contacted companies - including trade bodies and industry groups. In the end, we received over 390 names. To help us decide the final 100, we ask some of last year's winners from our Most Influential list to read through the entries and make their picks.
Our judges included: Cat Channon (Warner Bros), Caroline Miller (Indigo Pearl), Veronique Lallier (Hi-Rez), Gina Jackson (The Imaginarium), Marie-Claire Isaaman (Women In Games), Liz Prince (Amiqus), Rhianna Pratchett (Writer), Christian West (Playsport Games), Shahid Ahmad (Ultimatum Games), Shaun Campbell (EA), Carl Cavers (Sumo Digital), Agostino Simonetta (Xbox), Tim Heaton (Creative Assembly), Gavin Price (Playtonic), Debbie Bestwick (Team17), Noirin Carmody (Revolution Software), Michael French (Games London), Roy Stackhouse (Activision), David Ranyard (Dream Reality Interactive), the GamesIndustry.biz Team, and more.