• Games Jobs
  • News
  • GCW
    • GiG Student Conference
    • University Open Day
  • Get a Job in Games
    • Games Careers Week
    • Get in the Game Careers Events
    • Get In The Game free video library
    • Search for a Star & Rising Star GameDev Challenges
      • Search For A Star 2021
      • d3t Rising Star 2021
      • 2020 Winners
      • 2019 Winners
      • 2018 Winners
      • Project Spotlight
        • Games Environment Art Projects | SFASX
        • Games Animation Projects | SFASX
        • Games Programming Projects | SFASX
        • Games Character Art Projects | SFASX
        • Games VFX Projects | SFASX
    • Take our Practice C++ Test
    • The Grads In Games Awards
      • 2020 Winners
      • 2019 Winners
      • 2018 Winners
  • About Us
    • Our Industry Partners 2020/21
    • Meet The Team
  • Partnership Opportunities
    • Become a Partner Studio
    • Become a Student Ambassador
    • Our Industry Advocates
    • Get Your University Involved
  • Log In / SignUp
Toggle navigation Grads In Games
  • Games Jobs
  • News
  • GCW
    • GiG Student Conference
    • University Open Day
  • Get a Job in Games
    • Games Careers Week
    • Get in the Game Careers Events
    • Get In The Game free video library
    • Search for a Star & Rising Star GameDev Challenges
      • Search For A Star 2021
      • d3t Rising Star 2021
      • 2020 Winners
      • 2019 Winners
      • 2018 Winners
      • Project Spotlight
        • Games Environment Art Projects | SFASX
        • Games Animation Projects | SFASX
        • Games Programming Projects | SFASX
        • Games Character Art Projects | SFASX
        • Games VFX Projects | SFASX
    • Take our Practice C++ Test
    • The Grads In Games Awards
      • 2020 Winners
      • 2019 Winners
      • 2018 Winners
  • About Us
    • Our Industry Partners 2020/21
    • Meet The Team
  • Partnership Opportunities
    • Become a Partner Studio
    • Become a Student Ambassador
    • Our Industry Advocates
    • Get Your University Involved
  • Log In / SignUp

Search for a Star 2017 Stage 2 Assessor Spotlight

February 28, 2018 Alex 0
Posted in Articles, News, Search For A StarAssessors Boss Alien Coatsink d3t Games Animation Games Art Games Programming Games VFX Microsoft nDreams Playtonic Red Kite Games Rising Star Search For A Star SFAS18 SFAS2018 Stage 2 Sumo Digital Ubisoft

Search for a Star 2017 Stage 2 Assessor Spotlight

February 28, 2018 Alex 0

Finals day is fast approaching, and as much as the entrants to Search for a Star and Sumo Digital Rising Star are important, so are the industry professionals who volunteer their time. These games industry professionals are providing individual feedback on everything from code and animation to art and gameplay. Their feedback in earlier stages had a dramatic effect between Stages 1 & 2 as we saw a great leap in the quality of some of the artwork being submitted.

Understandably, none of this would be possible without the support of our industry partners including Sumo Digital, nDreams, BossAlien, Red Kite & d3t. However, it is the response from freelancers, senior studio figures and big-name studios across the world that has us floored. Search for a Star has the industry taking notice!

Over 100 professionals, from nearly 100 studios sharing their knowledge and experience.

From studios including –

  • Avalanche Studios
  • Bioware
  • CD Projekt
  • Criterion Games
  • Double Negative
  • EA
  • Frostbite
  • Infinity Ward
  • Microsoft
  • Natural Motion
  • Rockstar
  • Splash Damage
  • Travelers Tales
  • Ubisoft

Even movie graphics firms like Lightstorm Entertainment, who have done ground-breaking work on movies like Avatar. We thought we would introduce you to some of the assessors for 2018.

UI Programmer Ubisoft

Brian Cox – UI Programmer
Ubisoft Shanghai

Firstly, a big thank you to Brian Cox for leading development on the Stage 2 code challenge, creating the starter project that shaped the challenge for all involved.
Brian has an amazing pedigree in games, working at Ubisoft, Creative Assembly and Rare on AAA titles including Far Cry 5, Halo Wars 2 and Sea of Thieves.
With help from Matt Griffiths from Futurlab, Abdel Kaab from Offworld Industries and former Search for a Star Winner, Yan Knoop from Avalanche Studios, it’s a great example of the amazing volunteers from across the world who make these challenges something extra special.

Assessor Profiles

Environment & Character Art

 

Art Manager Boss AlienTom Pickard – Art Manager
BossAlien

Tom is the Art Manager at BossAlien, and indie developer Knifey Spoonie. He has been at BossAlien for little over a year but has been in the industry since 2006. He graduated from Teeside University having studied Computer Games Design and landed a Lead Environment Artist role, at Creative Assembly working on titles like Empire Total War, and Shogun 2.

Character Artist StunlockTara Wahlbäck –  Senior Character Artist
Stunlock

Sweden is one of the game world’s creative hotbeds, and native Swede Tara has worked with studios like Southend and Starbreeze on titles like Sacred Citadel and Payday 2. She is now based in Skovde with Stunlock Studios as a Senior Character Artist.

Environment Artist at PlaytronicAnthea van Leeuwen – Environment Artist
Playtonic

Anthea is a Grads in Games veteran winning Sumo Digital Rising Star Environment Art in 2016. A skilled environment and character artist she completed internship with Sumo and is now working at award-winning studio Playtonic. According to the company website she plays a mean game of Mario Kart.

3D Artist ChengAmanda Cheng – 3D Artist
Coatsink Software

A graduate of Bournemouth University with a degree in Computer Animation Amanda spent 3 years at mobile games developer Marmalade as a 3D Generalist. She is now working at Coatsink as they work at the cutting edge of VR with Oculus, Playstation and Samsung Gear VR.

Animation & VFX

 

Glenn Brace – Art DirectorArt Director nDreams
nDreams

Glenn is an industry veteran with almost 2 decades of experience. Cutting his teeth with Stainless Games and then Climax Sudios, working on franchises including Assassins Creed; Glenn is now heading up the Art Department at nDreams as they continue their assault on the worlds of Virtual and Augmented Reality.

Raúl Ibarra Díez – 3D Character Animator3D Artist Ubisoft
Ubisoft

When we said that Search for a Star and Sumo Digital Rising Star was drawing attention from across the
globe, we weren’t kidding. Currently working with Ubisoft Barcelona as a 3D Character
Animator Raúl is a talented artist with a lifelong passion for video games. He says he always dreamed of working in the games industry and is here to help others follow their dreams.

Nic Chambers – VFX ArtistVFX Ubisoft
Ubisoft

Nic is a world traveller with an impeccable record in games. Studying Character Animation & CGI Production in Australia he has graduated to work with some of the top names in games. Including Creative Assembly, and Rockstar in the UK and now Ubisoft in Toronto. His talent has genuinely taken him around the world.

 

 

Code

Tech Director Sumo DigitalCraig Wright  – Tech Director
Sumo Digital

We are very proud to have local studio Sumo involved. Backers of the Rising Star initiative they are currently going from strength to strength with 3 studios in the UK and 1 in India. Craig has been based in Sheffield his whole professional life with Argonaut and then Sumo. With over a decade’s experience with the industry, and plenty of AAA credits under his belt we are looking forward to hearing Craig’s thoughts on this year’s entries.

Red Kite Tech DirectorAndrew Greensmith – Tech Director
Red Kite Games

The old says goes that, “Those who can’t, teach.” Well if there was ever someone to prove that saying wrong it’s Andrew. The former Abertay University lecture has had a glittering career working with industry legends including Rockstar and Activision, working on iconic titles like Red Dead Redemption, LA Noire and Grand Theft Auto. Now with Red Kite games working with franchises like God of War, Call of Duty and Dirt, Andrew will have some serious insights into the technology and coding submissions.

Tech Director d3tAndy Booth – Tech Director
d3t Ltd.

From another Grads in Games partner Andy brings some serious skills to his role as an assessor. Graduating from the University of Salford with a 1st Class degree in Computer Science Andy has not stopped doing 1st class work. Initially with THQ (on titles like Warhammer 40k: Kill Team and Red Faction: Battlegrounds) and now with award-winning d3t. As perhaps “the” premium software engineering company in games there are few in a better position to assess code quality.

Senior Coder nDreamsTom Whittaker – Senior Programmer
nDreams

Senior Coder at nDreams, with over 17 years’ experience within the games industry.

Prior to joining nDreams Tom worked with companies such as Born Ready, Curve Digital, Edgies, Zoe Mode and is credited on over 20 titles including Bloody Good Time, Fast & Furious 3-4 and Strike Suit Zero.

 

Gameplay

Jason Fielder – Former Exient CTO & Industry Legend Jason Fielder

Former CTO for award-winning studio Exient, Jason has almost 2 decades experience in creating amazing titles. FIFA, FIFA Street, Madden, Need for Speed, the Sims, Skate It, Angry Birds, DJ Hero. The list goes on and on. A genuine expert, with encyclopedic knowledge and an incredible pedigree.

Yan Knoop – Junior ProgrammerJunior Programmer Avalanche
Avalanche

A real Search for a Star Champion! Yan won the Sumo Digital Rising Star Coding title in 2015 only to come back in 2016 to claim top honours in Search for a Star as well. With a clutch of other honours including being one of Develop’s 2016 30 under 30 it’s great to see Yan back with us. He is currently with AAA Swedish studio Avalanche best known for their Just Cause and theHunter titles.

Gabriel Moreno-Fortuny – Lead Gameplay ProgrammerLead Gameplay Bioware
Bioware

Keeping the international flavour going, Gabriel is a Lead Gameplay Programmer with Bioware in Edmonton. With over a decade writing code for Bioware, Gabriel can boast the sort of credits you would expect including, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age: Inquisition, and Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Henry Tofts – Associate Level DesignerAssociate Level Designer Splash Damage
Splash Damage

Rounding out the stable of assessors from AAA studios is Henry from FPS legends Splash Damage. A graduate of the University of Bradford’s in Interactive Systems & Video Games Design; cutting his teeth with RedLynx and Sega; Henry has been working with Splash Damage for the past 2-years. If there’s anyone who understands gameplay, it’s Henry.

We hoped you enjoyed this quick glimpse into some of this year’s assessors.
To see the full list of the 2017/18 Round 2 Assessors click HERE.

 

 

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

If you like this, you may also be interested in the following:

Article By Alex

Author Archives Author Website
Posted in Articles, News, Search For A StarAssessors Boss Alien Coatsink d3t Games Animation Games Art Games Programming Games VFX Microsoft nDreams Playtonic Red Kite Games Rising Star Search For A Star SFAS18 SFAS2018 Stage 2 Sumo Digital Ubisoft

Post navigation

Search For a Star 18 Stage 2 Assessors
Meet James: A Sumo Digital Rising Star Winner

Recently added games jobs

  • Junior Producer

    • Lytham St Annes, UK
    • Permanent
  • Junior Programmer

    • Farnborough
    • Ballistic Moon
    • Permanent
  • Games Lecturer

    • Farnham, UK
    • University for the Creative Arts
    • Permanent
Tweets by GradsInGames

Game Dev Challenges

  • Challenges News
  • Search For A Star
  • d3t Rising Star
  • Apply Now
  • Our Industry Partners 2019/20
  • Partner and Sponsorship Opportunities
  • Get Your University Involved
Grads In Games - Games Jobs & Careers

Grads In Games

Find a job or Post a job

Recent Posts

  • Student Conference 2021 speaker: Zoë Sams February 25, 2021
  • Student Conference 2021 speaker: Jessie Thomson February 23, 2021
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVcrwWNNKOs&t=14s

Featured Jobs

  • Intern C++ Programmer

    • Brighton, UK
    • NaturalMotion Games
    • Internship
  • Junior C++ Programmer

    • Runcorn, UK
    • d3t
    • Permanent

Keep up to date by following Grads In Games on social media

© 2011-2021 FutureDev Initiatives | Grads In Games

  • Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy & Data Usage
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.