Our Games, Animation and VFX students recently had the privilege of welcoming UK Games Developer and Publisher, Ripstone Games, and our course partners NextGen Skills Academy, for a hands-on session with the experts!
Marcia Deakin, Co-Founder of NextGen Skills Academy and Lead Games Designer at Ripstone Games, Simone McDermot, worked closely with the students to help them to develop and offer feedback and guidance on their final year projects, which the students will have the opportunity to present later in the year, at the prestigious AIM Awards in London.
For their final project, the students have been working in teams to follow a brief designed by industry to develop a game, animation or piece of VFX, based on non-European myths or legends. The session was a great opportunity for the students to present their work, talk through their production pipelines and project plans and receive feedback from the experts.
Marcia commented on the outstanding work of our students and went on to say, “We were absolutely blown away by the level of work the students are producing and how articulate and passionate they are. The team have done a fantastic job, the students were demonstrating skills and work at a standard way above many university graduates! Absolutely fabulous.”
The College has worked in close partnership with the NextGen Skills Academy since 2018, and our partnership has enabled us to access a number of unique opportunities likes these, from delivering remote work experience, industry challenges and workshops, bringing industry into the classroom!
Women in Games Ambassador and Lead Games Designer, Simone, has 15 years of experience in the industry, and has worked on some amazing projects throughout her career, including her latest project, The Queens Gambit Chess.
She added, “What an absolute pleasure it was to meet Dexter and the students! I was so impressed to see the collaboration and communication between the students. It was amazing to see them embracing industry standard methods too! I commend Dexter and the team for their fantastic roles in preparing the students for the industry. Having been involved with outreach across the Northwest, I can confidently say that their efforts have truly impressed me. I can’t wait to come back and see their final prototypes!”
Last year, our link with Ripstone saw five of our students get the unique opportunity to complete a work placement at the Ripstone office in Liverpool, gaining themselves first-hand experience working in a fast-paced gaming company!
If you’re interested in studying Games, Animation and VFX, applications are open to join us this September. Discover more and apply to secure your place.
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