Round 1 for the Search For A Star completions is now open, and information on the first stage is on its way out to all those who have pre-registered for either Art or Code. The first stage of both Search For A Star & Sumo Digital Rising Star challenges you to prove your abilities in a qualifying round developed and assessed by a team of games industry professionals.

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Please note that applications for the 2017 competition close on the 20th January 2017

CODE

Programmers will be required to sit a 90 minute C++ code test on the HackerRank platform.  The top 25% of scores from each competition continue onto the game development project.

By ranking all the contestants on their ability to solve code problems set by our team, HackerRank allows us to identify & assess the most talented student coders to take forward in the competition. In previous years, we have found that on average 75% of students who passed the HackerRank test in Search for a Star ended up graduating into a job in the games industry.

It is strongly recommended that you register, set up and familiarise yourself with using the HackerRank platform before starting the test.

Check out some HackerRank practice challenges for C++

ART, ANIMATION, VFX

For Art, entrants are required to submit a recent example of their work to be assessed by our assessment team of games professionals. Entrants will be asked to pick from one of four 3D art disciplines, which they will be assessed on throughout all stages of the competition.

Entrants must choose and submit one portfolio piece that showcases their skill within their chosen discipline.

For character & environment artists, this can be one of the following :

• A single image composite showing multiple angles of the subject.
• A collection of up to six images, each showing a different single angle of the subject.
• An interactive 3D visualization of the subject

For animation & VFX artists, this can be one of the following :

• A video of no more than 60 seconds, focussed on a single subject.
• An interactive 3D visualization of the subject.