"Entering Search for A Star gives you early exposure to the sorts of questions and processes that you'll experience when interviewing for your first industry job," offered Greg Booker, technical director at Headstrong Games and Search for a Star judge. Booker continues to say "It gives you a chance to show your abilities and stand out from the crowd, something that's really important in an increasingly crowded graduate job market. It's a great addition to your CV and should be a lot of fun too."
The competition is split into three stages - a two hour programming test, a week long programming task and a panel interview with leading members of the video games industry. Students can apply through their course leaders or directly on the official site.
"We're delighted to be running the competition for its third year and are very pleased with the response we have had from the Universities," added Mark Hope, graduate specialist at Aardvark Swift, the company hosting the competition. Hope further mentions that "The games industry feedback has been amazingly positive. Studios appreciate that the competition highlights talented individuals, while also helping to create another line of communication between developers and academia. This type of contact between universities and games developers is vital if we hope to increase the quality and quantity of graduate entering in industry. Many of 2011's participants were extremely strong, with a large number having gone on to secure roles in the UK games industry as a result of the competition."
Design3 is thrilled to be participating in the 2012 Search for a Star programming competition. We’ll be donating design3 memberships to participants so they can enjoy future independent learning. We also look forward to promoting the contest and letting the global game development community know what a special opportunity Search for a Star offers to participants.
2011 Search for a Star Winners:
Winner Stuart Brown has graduated from University of Central Lancashire with a 1st class BSc (Hons) in Computer Games Development.
George Smith has graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University with a 1st class BSc (Hons) in Computer Games Technology. He will be starting work at Playground Games soon.
Adam Kelly has graduated from Northumbria University with a B.S.C. in Computer Games Software Engineering. He is now working at Playground Games.
For more information:
>> Please view this Search for a Star video
>> Read about the 2011 Search for a Star winners
Author: Chelsea Larson-Andrews is the CMO for design3.