Grads In Games is an industry outreach initiative operated by Aardvark Swift Recruitment, working directly with leading studios across the UK. Since 2010 we’ve been helping thousands of students and graduates make their first steps into the games industry, and have directly placed hundreds more into leading studios across the UK.

Our goals:

  • To forge stronger links and collaborations between the games industry and academia.
  • To help students and young people become more employable and successfully get jobs within the games industry.

We do this by working with studios across a packed range of initiatives, projects, activities and events which engage thousands of students, academics and games professionals across the world.

Our two core annual activities are:

Search For A Star & Rising Star

November – April

Our annual student game development challenges provide opportunities for current students to follow an industry-set brief to create and publish a game or portfolio piece, before showcasing it in front of industry professionals for valuable feedback. The winners and finalists of the challenges regularly end up with jobs in games as a direct result of taking part.

The challenges combine a jam-style challenge and an interview with gamedev professionals, improving the knowledge, aptitude and employability of students across programming, design, art, animation and VFX.

Get In The Game

September – December 

We operate our Get in the Game careers events across the UK and Europe, speaking directly to students to provide comprehensive games careers guidance, detailed CV and portfolio advice, and to share info direct from studios about the skills needed to increase employability within the games industry.

We’re joined by guest speakers from games studios, sharing their own unique insights and experience with students.