Once again we’d like to give a huge thanks to everyone in our Search For A Star Assessment Team! We’ve had over 200 project submissions this year, so it’s no small task to get them all assessed and provide feedback. Our assessors do a huge job in working through all of the projects, and Search for a Star and Rising Star literally couldn’t happen without their help! 

Our partner studios this year have been invaluable here in providing support, assessors, and project reviews, so thank you to the teams at d3t and Coconut Lizard and 10:10 Games for their work with the project assessments, and thank you for the support of our other studio partners at Red Kite Games, Furious Bee, Steel City Interactive and PlusMusic, our supporting partners XR Games, and our prize providers at Adobe!

We’d also like to give a special thanks for the additional work by our programming project developer, Lizi Attwood, Technical Director at Furious Bee, and to our Design project developers 10:10 Games.

For this year’s challenges, we’ve managed to gather a huge assessment team of over 130 people from across the games industry. Let’s take a moment to appreciate and give credit to all of the industry professionals who have generously volunteered their time, giving their guidance and feedback to help the next generation of game developers and bridging the gap between education and employment.

Search For A Star & Rising Star 2024
Project Assessors

Character Art

Adam Vickerstaff, Senior 3D Artist
Andru Mihai Sandu, Junior Character Artist
Anton Guzeev, Senior Character Artist, Black Forest Games
Beccy Collins, Character Artist, Sumo Leamington
Caleb O’Brien, Senior Character Artist, Firesprite
Dan Baird, Director, Infinity27
Denis Beletskii, Character Concept Artist, DPS Games
Jake Lamb, Senior Character Artist, Expression Games
Jess Pearson, Junior 3D Artist, Boneloaf
Jessie Chan, Junior Character Artist, Expression Games
Jordan Best, Character Artist
Jose Gonzalez Rodriguez, Character Artist, Roarty Digital
Luke Chesworth, Junior Character Artist
Sasha Gallie, Junior Character Artist, Double Eleven
Sergei Gereev, Lead 3D Character Artist, Dreamside Interactive
Sofie Jasiewicz-Gill, Character Artist, Lucid Games
Tristan McGuire, Character Artist, Airship Interactive
Zakia Abdullah Khan, Senior/Lead Character Artist

Environment Art

Adam Olsson, Art Director, Dambuster Studios
Andrew Liddle, Senior Environment Artist, Playfusion
Ant O’Sullivan, Senior Environment Artist
Ben Merrick, Lead Artist / Art Outsource Manager, Stellar Entertainment
Bill Harbison, Senior Environment Artist, Spliced Inc
Christopher Payton, Head of Art, Lighthouse Games
David O’Reilly, Environment Artist
Francesco Abbonizio, Art / Tech Art Director, RAVINE Games
Laura Dilloway, Lead Environment Artist, Airship Interactive
Lloyd James, Vehicle Artist II, Cloud Imperium Games
Luc Allenet de Ribemont, Concept Artist, Jumpship
Marc Perez Olivas, Environment Artist
Marco D’Angelo, Lead 3D Artist / Senior 3D env artist, Hololux
Michael Dolman, Environment Artist
Mohammad Heidar, Project Manager
Nathan Collum, 3D Artist
Quentin Papleux, Expert Lighting Artist, Beenox (ABK)
Rebecka Mason, 3D Artist
Said Zamzad, Art Director
Sam Voller, Associate 3D Artist, Auroch Digital
Simon Benge, Lead Artist (Technical), Apex Designs Entertainment
Steven Downer, Art Director, Winking Studios
Tom Lawson, Senior Environment Artist
Tyler Hartshorne, Environment Artist, Airship Interactive
Tyler Oliver, Environment Artist, Airship Interactive
Zsolt Attila Jackli, Senior Environment Artist

Animation

Andy Brunton, Lead Animator, Jumpship
Christopher Tuck, Animator, Starbreeze Studios
Francisco Massanet, Senior Character Animator, BlackBird Interactive
Irina Pak, Lead Animator, DPS Games
Iva Kasapova, Senior Animator, Expression Games
Matt Palmer, Lead Animator, d3t
Miguel de Deus Teixeira, 3D Animator, Jellyfish Studios
Najeeb Hassan, 3D Artist/Animator
Peter Daniels, Technical Animation Director, Haven Studios (Sony)
Phil Hanks, Principal Animator, nDreams Orbital
Sankalp Sharma, Animator, Lucid Games
Tim West, Principal Animator, Frontier Developments
Vicky Evans, Senior Animator, d3t

VFX

Alice Forbes, Senior VFX artist
Christopher Swick, Lead Visual Effects Artist, Raven Software / Activision
David Rolfe, VFX Specialist
Ethan Gangotra, Junior VFX Artist, Lucid Games
Ilari Lehtinen, Lead VFX artist
Iryna Tkach, Senior VFX Artist, Fuse Games
Johannes Richter, Head of VFX
Laura Higgins, VFX Artist
Matthew Tindle, Lead VFX Artist, DPS Games
Mustafa Al Obiadi, VFX Artist, EA DICE
Nicholas Chambers, CEO, FX-Chamber
Tanner Squire, Mid Level VFX Artist, Auroch Digital
Victor Muñoz Martinez, Lead VFX Artist, nDreams
Yaser Hussain, Lead VFX Artist

Programming

Aleksandr Lomakin, Lead Programmer, Magnum Scriptum
Arnoldas Gurskis, Senior Software Engineer
Artem Chaika, Senior Unreal Developer, Fracture Labs
Ben MacKinnon, Unity Development Manager, ENGAGE XR Ltd
Carl Jones, Senior Programmer, Sumo Digital
Daniel Downes, Consultant, Immerse Labs Ltd
David Speck, AI Programmer, Guerrilla
Dean Sinclair, Senior Gameplay Programmer, Ex-Mediatonic/Epic Games
Diego Mazala, Senior Software Engineer
Felipe Guedes da Silveira, Senior AI Programmer, Creative Assembly
Felix Wentworth, Tech Lead
Greg Booker, Principal Programmer, DPS Games
Hollie Page, Associate programmer, Lively/Electric Square
Jared Thomson, Sr. Lead Software Engineer, Turn 10 (Xbox Game Studios)
Jason Tzaidas, Advanced Gameplay Programmer, Rocksteady Studios
Jessie Thomson, Animation Programmer, Great Ape Games
John Green, Graphics Programmer, CCP Games
John Reynolds, Lead Programmer. Bonsai Collective
Kinsey Andrea Nietzsche, Software Developer
Ludovic Riffiod, Lead Game Developer, BfB Labs
Luke McFarlane, Junior Programmer, Pocket Sized Hands
Martin Mihov, Senior Developer, Oxalis Games
Matheus Amazonas, Game Developer, inMotionVR BV
Michael Brune, Founder, Underflow Studios
Miłosz Bednarski, Unity Developer, Rosetta Gaming
Philip Niemeyer-Farquharson, Principal Development Lead, Xbox Advanced Technology Group
Scott Bevin, Lead Programmer, 10:10 Games
Scott Halsall, Senior Software Developer
Sean William Hall, Senior Programmer, Sumo Digital
Steven Yau, Senior Systems Engineer
Stuart Pentelow, Programmer, d3t
Tim Mann, CEO

Design

Alastair Brown, Lead Narrative Designer
Albert Guimerà Montserrat,  Associate Producer – Project Manager, Gameloft
Álvaro Triana, Senior Producer
Arnaud Lebesnerais, Senior Producer
Carlos Lopez-Tello, Game Producer
Doğaç Yavuz, Designer
Elena Barbu, Freelance Illustrator
Emma Bruce, Design Manager, Sumo Sheffield
Eric Verschoor, Associate Producer, Supermassive Games
Erlan Reverol,  Game designer
Giorgio Vezzini, Audio Director, Game Designer
Gustavo Luís Rosa Coelho, Game Producer, Taurone Studios
Hannah Vardey,  Game Designer, Lucid Games
Jamie Stowe, Design Director and Co-Founder, TreesPlease Games
Martin Mitkov,  Senior game designer
Matthew Tibbenham, Narrative Designer, Supermassive Games
Matty McGrory, Lead Game Designer, Radical Forge
Max Weltz, Senior Product Manager
Michael Harman, Lead Game Designer, DPS Games
Milo Bygrave, Game Design & Monetisation Consultant
Patience Ocquaye, Game designer, Outright games
Roberto Vergine, Game/Level Designer, Game Developer Cactus Production
Roque “Rox” Bru Navarro, Mid/Specialist Combat Designer
Scott Dickens, Managing Director, Skyline Studios Games
Sean Gorman, Lead Level Designer, VOID Interactive
Sebastian Castro, iOS Solution Architect
Shamil Yanbukhtin, Lead Combat Designer, Bloober Team
Simao Flores Araujo, Producer
Stefan Petraru, Game Designer
Túlio Duarte, Technical Game Designer, Akumi Wars
Vasileios Tsagkaropoulos, Senior Game Designer, Supermassive Games

A huge thanks to all of our judges and assessors for their work this year, and for the feedback, advice and support they have provided to participants.