This morning I chose to poke my head over the parapet and decided to enter the next Grads In Games Search for a Star contest. It’s open to final year undergraduates and post graduate students alike and covers several different categories including game programming, game art, game animation and VFX. Naturally I opted for programming as that’s by far my strongest skill area.
I’d been thinking about entering for a while and what had put me off was not having a portfolio to showcase just yet. One game prototype doesn’t really qualify for a portfolio!
I also felt that putting myself in front of a panel of industry experts, the movers and shakers in the games industry, was a very intimidating prospect. With very little experience, how could they possibly take me seriously? Would they not just laugh and bounce me out of the competition?
So what changed? What happened, today, to make me apply?
Very simply, I stumbled across these photos from 2014…
Photos courtesy Business Excellence Forum/ActionCOACH Award Ceremony, 2014
I didn’t want to enter. I felt at the time they’d just laugh at me and told my coach the same. He just smiled and calmly said “no they won’t, you should enter, it will be good experience.” I’m glad I did. I won Best Business award as a result.
This morning I entered the Search for a Start contest. I expect it to be tough and the first challenge will be to brush up on my C++ skills as I’ve not used it in anger for over a year now. To that end, I’m seriously considering switching from Unity to Unreal Engine for the next Game Jam.
Photo by Kristina Flour on Unsplash
