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'Game Academy' will seek out region's talent

The North East videogames industry’s young talent will pitch their game concepts to a panel of industry experts in Middlesbrough next week to win the chance to take their ideas to the next stage of development. At Codeworks GameHorizon’s ‘Game Academy,’ on Wednesday 7th February at the Riverside Stadium in Middlesbrough, local start-up companies and graduates will practise pitching their concepts in a live situation and gain feedback from some of the industry’s most experienced heads.

The industry panel will include representatives from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and Codemasters. The prize for the best pitch on the day will be a £1,000 mentoring package to develop their career or business objectives, free membership to GameHorizon, a Sony PSP and bundle of Codemasters games.

Carri Cunliffe, manager of GameHorizon, said: “As creative industries minister Shaun Woodward recognised recently, getting a break in the games industry is tough, and graduates and new companies need all the help they can get to succeed. “Through events like this one, GameHorizon is seeking to give these companies and individuals valuable experience of making a real pitch in front of a panel of some of the industry’s biggest names.”

Last year’s inaugural event was won by Jeremiah Alexander, a final year student at the University of Teesside. He used the prize of mentoring support to help set up his own business, Babel Digital. Based at Teesside University, the company is a developer focused on computer games for education, training and creative learning.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .