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SFAS 2021 | The Finalists

March 11, 2021March 17, 2021 0
Posted in Search For A StarCharacter art Environment Art Games Animation Games Programming Games VFX graduate artists Graduate programmers SFAS 2021 SFAS Finalists student games

SFAS 2021 | The Finalists

March 11, 2021March 17, 2021 Dan Dudley 0

We’ve had another fantastic year for Search For A Star, with 225 games projects created by students from across the UK and Europe. We’re now reaching the final stage of the challenges, and are pleased to reveal our finalists for 2021!

These students have shown high level skills and created exceptional projects over the course of a few weeks, across programming, art, animation and VFX. Many of the students in this list will undoubtedly become future stars of the games industry and we’re eager to help them on that journey.

Later this month, they will all be invited to interview with a panel of games industry professionals, discussing their projects, their skills and their ambitions for the future. The winners of this year’s Search For A Star & d3t Rising Star will then be revealed on the 1st April in a special live presentation as part of Games Careers Week.

We’d like to extend a massive thanks to everyone who has helped these students get this far, including our partners at Aardvark Swift, d3t, Sumo Digital, nDreams, Frontier Developments, NaturalMotion Games, DPS Games, DS Dambuster Studios, Airship Images, Firesprite, Red Kite Games, Tonic Games Group & Steel City Interactive for their support throughout.

Our development teams have been invaluable in the process, and we thank the code test team from Sumo Digital, d3t & DPS Games, and our game project developers Lizi Attwood of Furious Bee and Greg Booker of DPS Games. We also couldn’t have done it without the hard work of our assessment team, with some very appreciated additional support from d3t & Sumo Digital, in reviewing all of the projects received.


Search For A Star 2021

Students graduating from university in 2021.

d3t Rising Star 2021

Undergraduate & college-level students, graduating 2022 or later.


The Finalists

Games Programming

Games VFX

Games Animation

Environment Art

Character Art


Games Programming Finalists 2021

Heather Cochrane

Abertay University

Francisco Nicolau

University of Lisbon, Instituto Superior Técnico

David Taylor

Staffordshire University

Kevin de Temmerman

Howest DAE

Nat Waterworth

University of Huddersfield

Alejandro Balea

Digipen Europe

Kian Bennett

University of Portsmouth

Emma O’Reilly

University of Central Lancashire

Tim Rademaker

Breda University of Applied Sciences

Cameron Sim

City University of London

Congratulations to Joshua Pritchard of the University of Huddersfield & Sascha Brunner of the University of Central Lancashire who also both qualified as finalists for Search For A Star 2021


Games VFX Finalists 2021

(combined category, both Search For A Star & d3t Rising Star)

Anouk Donkers

Howest DAE

Laura Higgins

Escape Studios

Sam Mayson

University of Hertfordshire

Xaver Rauscher

Abertay University

Elie Van Ravels

Howest DAE


Games Animation Finalists 2021

(combined category, both Search For A Star & d3t Rising Star)

Iva Kasapova

University of the Arts London

Amir Mansaray

Staffordshire University

Alannah Meek

University of South Wales

Sankalp Sharma

Staffordshire University

William Sheen

Staffordshire University


Environment Art Finalists 2021

Adam Fautley

University of Huddersfield

Elliot Griffiths

Falmouth University

Antonia Hardy

University of South Wales

Alice Hughes

Escape Studios

Chris Rhodes

University of Huddersfield

Phillip Baker

University of Portsmouth

Gia Bao Lam

Howest DAE

Elmo La Mantia

Falmouth University

Shay Palmer

De Montfort University

Martin Pech

University of South Wales


Character Art Finalists 2021

Petar Cakic

University of Derby

Oliver Fayers

University of Huddersfield

Luke Marchese

Staffordshire University

Tristan McGuire

Solent University

Tadas Sadauskas

Escape Studios

Yano Claeys

Howest DAE

Ethan Gangotra

University of Huddersfield

Gia-Han Lam

Howest DAE

Grzegorz Szargot

Sheffield Hallam University

Eti Udosen

University of Huddersfield

Congratulations to everyone who has made it to the final stage of the challenge. Reaching this point is an exceptional achievement and one to be very proud of!

Join us on the 1st April as we reveal the winners of this year’s Search For A Star & d3t Rising Star student gamedev challenges!

Article By Dan Dudley

Marketing + community + support person. Lots of behind-the-scenes bits here at Grads In Games & with Search For A Star. If you need help with anything, you can usually find me over on the Grads In Games Discord or email dan@gradsingames.com

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