The Grads in Games Awards 2020 – The Industry Collaboration Award Winner Revealed!
The Industry Collaboration Award highlights those universities and studios who actively collaborate on work. This can be studio oversight or initiation of a course module, an individual project or a group project as part of an academic course. We want to showcase universities and studios that demonstrate strong interaction and build direct connections between courses and the games industry.
This year we had some incredible nominations who were eventually whittled down to a shortlist of 5 finalists who were then judged by our fantastic panel. This years finalists:
- Outplay Academy + Abertay University
- Rare + University of Portsmouth
- Spilt Milk + East London Arts & Music
- Tiny Rebel Games + University of South Wales
- TT Games + University of Central Lancashire
Following deliberation by our judging panel, we can now reveal that in their expert decision the winners of this years award are Rare and the University of Portsmouth.
In 2019, University of Portsmouth games course staff spent a few days at Rare to gain an understanding of current game development practice. As part of that visit, discussion took place to help develop a curriculum for a new production module. This has subsequently created a synergy in the current academic year with an existing final year client-focused game development module.
A team of 4 students from the university have undertaken an exciting and ambitious year-long game development project based on a studio brief provided by Rare. In their capacity as the client, Rare have had regular contact with the student team, offering support and continuous feedback throughout the pre-production and production process. The students have been able to take this invaluable advice and insight into standard industry practice and apply it within the context of their own development project.
Some of their nominations:
“I’ve personally found this whole experience to be incredibly rewarding and it’s an opportunity I’m extremely proud to have been given. Working collaboratively with an excellent team has taught me loads and I feel I have developed lots of essential producer skills such as leadership, project management and managing people. I have a keen interest in entering a production role once I graduate and this project has given me some amazing experiences to reflect and build upon.“
“Having an industry client has brought valuable insight into industry standards, practices and methodologies which have proved very helpful throughout the year. Additionally, the structure of the production module has allowed for a strong balance of self-directed study and work, whilst still being given tremendous support from staff, peers and our client.”
“Rare are genuinely one of the reasons I played so many games in my youth, to work with them on this project is a dream come true. It’s been a wonderful journey so far and I can’t wait to have the final playable demo complete at the end of the project.”
This is a fantastic example of how collaboration between industry and academia can produce amazing results and positively impact students. We would like to congratulate Rare and the University of Portsmouth on this collaboration and would encourage others to explore similar schemes of their own.
