Last year, us folk at Into Games announced our official partnership with Hangar 13, and received their support to make the industry more accessible. They have enabled us to continue to guide anyone with a passion to succeed, especially those from underrepresented groups. 

One year on, we wanted to reflect and celebrate the work Hangar 13 has put into our partnership and what their backing has allowed us to achieve so far.

Hangar 13's achievements so far...

Develop: Brighton 2022 took place in July, with a record-breaking year, reaching 3473 participants over the course of the three days. Hangar 13 supported Into Games by providing space for us at their booth at this year's Expo to allow us to reach out and offer free game career guidance to all visitors attending.

We also created some snazzy merchandise with Hangar 13 and Into Games branding to celebrate our partnership and continued work together, including postcards and tote bags - all provided by the folks at Hangar 13!

Teaming with Greater Brighton MET, Hangar 13 delivered an amazing creative brief and provided a team of staff that took their hand to mentoring and giving feedback during Studio Live, our unique programme to introduce workspace practices, tools and skills to game students.

Above is an example of one of the student team's Miro boards.

With Hangar 13’s help, Into Games ran Access to Games, an initiative to teach secondary school students from disadvantaged areas about careers in gaming. Students discovered different roles and got their chance to try their hand at becoming a marketeer, artist, designer, as well as technical and narrative roles.

In total, eight different educational opportunities have been completed through Video Games Ambassadors - the UK’s only platform for connecting industry professionals to educational opportunities.  Because of this vital work, 264 young people have been supported by Hangar 13 through the Video Games Ambassadors!

We’ve seen 11 members of Hangar 13 go through the Into Games Champions Training Program - a project to help empower and upskill the next generation of games educators, mentors, and public speakers through learning sessions delivered by Routes, Matteo Menapace, & Limit Break Mentorship.

As of today, Hangar 13 staff members have volunteered 52 hours to help the Video Games Ambassadors connect young people to game developers across the UK.  This time includes Access to Games workshops, critiquing and judging student narrative game concepts for the Orwell Youth Prize and reviewing college game design projects for Cheadle 6th Form College. 

This also includes critiquing & judging student narrative game concepts for the Orwell Youth Prize, encouraging over 200 young people to consider game design as an art form and genre that allow players to think about politics and society in new and interesting ways.

Some members of Hangar 13 staff have also volunteered their time to film See To Be videos for Elev8Careers and Get Career Confident - showcasing their job, what it involves, and how to get there to young people aged 14-19 across 28 schools and colleges in East Sussex.

Supporting our work

On top of these landmark contributions, Hangar 13 partnership has also allowed our core projects to continue and has let us explore and launch crucial new pilot projects, including

• Building a ground breaking after-school club for some of the UK’s most disadvantaged young people that will help students in deprived areas learn how to make their first video game.
  
• Delivering the UK’s first-ever apprenticeship report, kickstarting new avenues to vocational employment for people from underrepresented groups.
  
• Launching an Into Games course pilot, that will help diverse games careers seekers build out their portfolio with guidance from industry experts.
  
  

A huge thank you to Hangar 13 and all their staff for helping to support our work in making the UK games industry more inclusive and become the most rewarding place to work.

If you would like to find out more about helping your company be an Into Games partner,  reach out to Brandon our Head of Partnerships to find out more.