Just today, a number of our Search For A Star & Rising Star winners, Sam Bang, Rachel Cabot and Anthea van Leeuwen were given an honourable mention in the 2017 Develop 30 Under 30 list. To have your hard work recognised alongside many other young, dedicated individuals who’re all making a big impact in the industry is no small achievement. We’d like to congratulate our three young developers!

But where else can Search For A Star take you? We’ve had previous winners enter jobs all over the world with big name studios, such as No Man’s Sky creators Hello Games, Just Cause creators Avalanche Studios and TT Games.

Our 2016 Rising Star art winner Anthea won a five month internship with Sheffield-based Sumo Digital, where she was given the opportunity to work on the soon to be released puzzle platform game Snake Pass.

“It’s been really great! Everyone has been really kind in helping me settle down here, and I’ve been given very enjoyable tasks – some of which did have an impact on the game as a whole!” says Anthea.

Having worked on a released game before even graduating is a huge advantage when applying for a graduate job that not many students will be able to say they’ve done. There are certain things that can only truly be learned outside the classroom, and gaining an internship through Rising Star can help with that.

We’ve also seen a number of runner ups place at studios both big and small. Developers keep a keen eye on the competition and are aware of what students are asked to do. It’s this extracurricular work that they often look for when hiring graduates.