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We’re proud to say we are supporting the Game Republic’s Student Showcase for the fourth year running. Now in its sixth year, the event gives students the chance to show off their talents to some of the biggest local names in the industry. Read the press release for more information.

Biggest-ever Game Republic Student Showcase graduate talent expo returns on 30th May 2013 at Leeds College of Art
Yorkshire and northern England games network Game Republic to hold its largest-ever annual Student Showcase at the Leeds College of Art, with student projects from six universities and colleges sponsored and judged by games companies Sumo Digital, Revolution Software, Just Add Water and Four Door Lemon

Tuesday 7th May 2013: Game Republic has announced details of the sixth annual Student Showcase, which is to be held at the Leeds College of Art on Thursday 30th May. This year’s Game Republic Student Showcase 2013 is the biggest-ever event for the Yorkshire and northern England games network, celebrating its tenth birthday this year, with six universities and colleges and four Yorkshire games companies taking part. The Showcase allows final-year and postgraduate games course students to display their best work to some of the most successful games developers in the region, which this year features Sumo Digital, Just Add Water, Revolution Software and Four Door Lemon, who are also all sponsoring and judging the privately-run event.

Last year's Student Showcase featured more than 80 students and 25 projects, and in 2013 this is set to increase as the Game Republic network now has six Educational Partners - the University of Bradford, Leeds Metropolitan University, the University of Huddersfield, Sheffield Hallam University, the University of York and Leeds College of Art.

Mike Smith Programme Leader of BA (Hons) Animation at Leeds College of Art said, “We are thrilled and excited to host this year’s event. The Student Showcase is a fantastic opportunity for students to speak directly to professionals in the games industry and gain valuable feedback about their work.”

Game Republic companies continue to sponsor and show incredible support for the Student Showcase since its inception six years ago, including Sheffield-based Sumo Digital, one of the UK’s largest independent games developers employing more than 200 staff.

Prizes are awarded for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in four categories - Game Design, Game Art, Game Technology and Best Team - and previous awards have led to work placements and full-time employment for dozens of games graduates in the north of England.

“Just Add Water is delighted to be involved in the Game Republic Student Showcase again this year, “ said Stewart Gilray, CEO of Just Add Water. “It’s a great way for students to meet prospective companies and for studios to see what talent Yorkshire and the north has to offer. We’ve even hired two of the finalists straight out of university for our Oddworld projects!”

"We're looking forward to seeing the results of all the hard work that is put into the projects by the students,” said Simon Barratt, Managing Director of Four Door Lemon. “In recent years we've been able to take on graduates we discovered at the events as full-time employees so it has proven to be a very important event for us."

For information and a video of last year’s Student Showcase, visit http://gamerepublic.net/networking-events/student-showcase-2012/

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I graduated from Leeds Metropolitan University in 2012 and was one of the lucky few to fall straight into my career. Getting a job after you graduate is hard enough, and this industry has even fiercer competition! As such, much of the focus of my talk was on giving the students some confidence in how to seek work in their career path of choice. I had the chance to show them it does happen and how I did it.

After a quick introduction of JAW and the games we do for Oddworld Inhabitants, I spoke briefly about New ‘n’ tasty and all the different things I do:

• rigging,
• animation,
• modelling; and
• more general stuff.

While talking about how awesome New ‘n’ Tasty is going to be it was great to see that quite a few people grew up playing Oddworld games!

I spoke about my transition from university to industry. The story about meeting Stewart, Tom and Liam at Game Republic in 2012. It needs to be instilled in anyone starting in the industry the importance of a strong portfolio, a separate CV, how to handle art tests and the interview process.

Finally, something you need to understand about the industry: It’s not just about playing games. You have to have a passion for it, love it, want it, commit yourself to it and constantly improve your skills.

A Question & Answer session followed, with most of conversation seemingly on ‘how hard is it to get a job in games industry’. A lot of people wanted to know what grade I got and if it mattered when looking for a job. Their reaction to my first class degree was priceless! Silence. I overheard a mutter in the audience saying “I’m screwed”. There was obviously a lot of worry about the job market in the room.

Did I always want to be a 3d artist? No, I started the course with plans to be a film director. My second year made me believe I wanted to be an animator. And again, the third year completely changed my perspectives and now I prefer modelling and sculpting.

When asked what my long-term goals were. That I want to freelance, the questions moved on to how to achieve this. So how do you become a freelancer? Once again it’s about getting the experience working in the company, learn as much as possible, get to know people (social media, events, word of mouth etc.). Basically, build up a strong portfolio and a good network!

Something that comes up in industry press every so often is the notorious crunch times. How do we handle stress during a crunch at JAW? Nerf guns and pizza! In truth, we work very hard to stick to a rigorous project plan to minimise crunches as much as we can.

Did I spend time on personal projects back when I was still at university? Being a workaholic, I had five days for uni projects and one to two days for personal projects, weekly.

Should you focus on mastering one skill or all fields? Obviously it’s easier to get a job as a general artist, even though it seems like more work.

The response from the audience was overwhelming. There was such a wide range of students from second and third year, games design and animation and special effects course. I even saw the familiar faces of some of my tutors up there! It was fun, exciting and awesome to be back to share my experience. I was a bit stressed at first, but relaxed during my presentation. Roll on next year!

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By now you’ll have eagerly lapped up all the information from the Sony PlayStation announcement. You’ll have seen our name in the list of confirmed developers. We’re delighted to finally be able to tell you that JAW are developing for the Sony PlayStation 4. We can’t talk about what we’re working on just yet. Just be assured it’ll be worth the wait.

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Click here to jump over to the piece.

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We’re pleased to show off our first release for the PS Vita, a native-resolutioned, touch-panel-adapted, badass port of Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD that’s been getting the reviewers all hot under the collar. You can find it on the PlayStation Store… right now!

There’s also a treat for fans of classic Oddworld, with the release of Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee HD on PS3 arriving just in time for the Christmas holidays.

You can grab Stranger’s Wrath HD for $14,99/€11.99/£9.99 and Munch’s Oddysee HD for $9.99/€8.99/£7.49. You’d be hard pressed to argue that’s not a bargain!

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Toot.

Tuesday, 24 October 2006, Just Add Water (Developments) Ltd flailed, kicking and screaming,  into existence. Gravity Crash for PSN came out and Stewart’s one man show was soon joined by Steve Caslin, Chief Technology Officer.

Now, we are a team of 12, with three more hopefully on the way in the near future. We work on award winning games across the breadth of gaming platforms, for Oddworld Inhabitants. Most importantly, we’re proud that we’re completely independent.

There’s big plans ahead for both JAW and Oddworld. So, while we stuff our faces with cake and take a well-earned breather, let’s toast to humble beginnings and ambitious futures!

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Details and applications can be found in the recruitment section.

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Game Republic have their own summary of the day, with the promise of photos and video to come. Congratulations to all winners, especially those in the Game Art category, who received Oddworld certificates, Stranger’s Wrath tees by Insert Coin, and for first place winner Barry Lowndes, a Stranger’s Wrath poster by Jonny Eveson signed by the Stranger HD team:

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