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Game Republic has announced details of the sixth annual Student Showcase, which is to be held at the Leeds College of Art on Thursday 30^th May. This year’s Game Republic Student Showcase 2013 is the biggest-ever event for the Yorkshire and northern England games network, celebrating its tenth birthday this year, with six universities and colleges and four Yorkshire games companies taking part.

The Showcase allows final-year and postgraduate games course students to display their best work to some of the most successful games developers in the region, which this year features Sumo Digital, Just Add Water, Revolution Software and Four Door Lemon, who are also all sponsoring and judging the privately-run event.

Last year’s Student Showcase featured more than 80 students and 25 projects, and in 2013 this is set to increase as the Game Republic network now has six Educational Partners – the University of Bradford, Leeds Metropolitan University, the University of Huddersfield, Sheffield Hallam University, the University of York and Leeds College of Art.

Mike Smith Programme Leader of BA (Hons) Animation at Leeds College of Art said, “We are thrilled and excited to host this year’s event. The Student Showcase is a fantastic opportunity for students to speak directly to professionals in the games industry and gain valuable feedback about their work.”

Game Republic companies continue to sponsor and show incredible support for the Student Showcase since its inception six years ago, including Sheffield-based Sumo Digital, one of the UK’s largest independent games developers. Prizes are awarded for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in four categories – Game Design, Game Art, Game Technology and Best Team – and previous awards have led to work placements and full-time employment for dozens of games graduates in the north of England.

“Just Add Water is delighted to be involved in the Game Republic Student Showcase again this year, “ said Stewart Gilray, CEO of Just Add Water. “It’s a great way for students to meet prospective companies and for studios to see what talent Yorkshire and the north has to offer. We’ve even hired two of the finalists straight out of university for our Oddworld projects!”

“We’re looking forward to seeing the results of all the hard work that is put into the projects by the students,” said Simon Barratt, Managing Director of Four Door Lemon. “In recent years we’ve been able to take on graduates we discovered at the events as full-time employees so it has proven to be a very important event for us.”

For information and a video of last year’s Student Showcase, click here. 

The next Game Republic business networking event will be on Wednesday 1st May in Leeds with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.

Pete Smith from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe XDev, based in Liverpool, will present upcoming opportunities on Sony platforms and an invaluable presentation on how to pitch your indie game to publishers – what to do to get your game across successfully and what to avoid!

This is an absolutely essential talk for new and experienced games developers – never do a rubbish pitch again!

The SCEE XDev event is for Game Republic members only – or £150. For more information, hit the event website. If you are interested in joining the UK’s biggest regional games business network to access this event for free – and also take part in our tenth year celebrations later this year – just get in touch.

UK Trade & Investment is hosting a free games and mobile event on Wednesday 17th April in Leeds. State of Play 2013 is aimed at games/digital/mobile/web companies in Yorkshire who would like to know more about the recent Mobile World Congress and Game Developers Conference events, and the current trends and state of the current mobile and games industries.

UKTI Yorkshire will also be on-hand to give information and advice on schemes such as Passport to Export, which gives any company in the region up to £3000 in match-funding to attend international events. State of Play will also feature games industry expert Oscar Clark from mobile company Applifier, who will be giving a presentation on free-to-play games, console, mobile and more. The event is free, includes lunch and is from 10-2pm – please sign up here.

Game Republic will be returning to the Game Developers Conference 2013 in San Francisco, USA, 25th-29th March, as part of a UK Trade & Investment Yorkshire trade mission.

Other companies attending GDC 2013 as part of this UKTI initiative include Revolution Software, Four Door Lemon, Distinctive Developments and Insight For Hire.

If you would like to discuss meetings with Game Republic and UKTI Yorkshire companies at GDC 2013, just get in touch via our Contacts page. See you there!