This forum's going to be active for the next couple of months while the challenges are open, but will still be around even after submissions close.

Based on current registration numbers, there could end up being quite a few people in here, so lets get some intros going.

The games industry may be huge, but the dev community itself can feel surprisingly small. Between networking events, conferences, meetups and just moving around between studios, you'll meet a lot of the same people.

The people in here are from universities across the UK and Europe, all studying and working in similar areas. You're all part of the same generation of the games industry & most of you are probably going to be bumping into each other in future. This time next year you could be working together, a few years on you could be recommending each other for new roles. Later down the line, you might even be running your own project & be looking for someone you know to join you on it...

Some simple intros to begin - who are you, where are you from & what made you decide to get into game art?

So, I'll start..

I'm Dan, I'm your main support contact for Search For A Star & the voice behind the Grads In Games account. I've been doing marketing with Grads In Games & Search For A Star for nearly 4 years, doing a lot of the behind-the-scenes work for the challenges. If you come along to the showcase event in April, I'll probably be the one making sure everything's in the right place & calming down nervous finalists.

I don't really do game dev aside from sometimes messing with Unity or Gamemaker, most of my creative work is in weird audio & sound design. Luckily, I (and by proxy, you) have access to a network of hundreds of professional game devs & artists to help out with SFAS.

I try to be as helpful as possible, so if you need anything you can either get me on the support forum, email me at dan@gradsingames.com or find me on Twitter.

I'll be daring and follow up. I'm Tomos, I'm from Birmingham in the UK, studying a MA in game dev at BCU's Gamer Camp. I'm actually from a theatre background as a Lighting Designer, but after some soul searching I decided to make the move over to digital art. I'm still essentially a lighting designer beyond anything else, but I've applied for the environment art brief as it obviously has close ties and I'm fascinated by the whole PBR textures and such now, and how it affects the way we can do lighting in games to ramp up the atmosphere even more. That's me I guess...

Hey im Will from Stratford-upon-Avon UK but currently studying games art in first year at the University of Hertfordshire. Im hoping to become either an environment artist or a technical artist in the future so I am entering the Rising Star Environment art competition as I want to get a lot better in that area.

Hi i'm Cameron, and i'm a second year Computer Visualisation & Animation student at Bournemouth University. I started specifically learning environment art about 6 months ago and hopefully taking part will help me learn some new skills and improve my current ones.

Hello! I am Pablo Monroy, and I am a Game Dev. student in Madrid, Spain. I am an artist and narrative designer passionate for 2D and 3D. This is my last year of college and my first time participating in Search for Star Challenge. I am really excited for this project and hope to see many amazing entries too! I would also love to know what projects you guys have been working on until date, so we can follow each other if you have artstation or similar! You can find me on Twitter too!