Three Southern Institute of Technology students have returned from the national game developers' conference with new contacts and a clearer view of the industry they hope to join.

Gary Polivert, Winter Allerby and Lillia McNatty, all studying for SIT's Bachelor of Screen Arts, won scholarships from the New Zealand Centre of Digital Excellence (CODE) to attend the New Zealand Game Developers Conference in Auckland.

The conference ran from 30 September to 3 October at the New Zealand International Convention Centre. The scholarships covered flights, accommodation and conference tickets, costs that would otherwise have kept the students in Invercargill.

"The tickets alone were quite expensive, and I probably wouldn't have attended without the scholarship," Polivert said.

The third-year game design student, originally from Wānaka, began at SIT in audio production before switching to game design. He singled out the opening keynote on cultural awareness in games as a highlight, and said the conference had reinforced for him that there was value in being a New Zealand developer.

Networking before graduation

Allerby made a mark in the Kiwi Games Zone, winning a competition built around the game Ascension: The Immortal Alchemist by beating the creator's own time by half a second and becoming the first player to finish the level.

Allerby plans to return to Palmerston North after graduating and then look for work in Wellington, and said the timing of the conference was ideal for making connections before entering the industry.

McNatty, a third-year student from Invercargill who hopes to move to Christchurch, said meeting people was the best part of the trip, along with industry advice of the kind not usually taught in a classroom. Like Polivert, she said the conference would have been financially out of reach without the scholarship.

CODE industry development manager Vee Pendergrast said building a network of peers was the most important thing for finding jobs and starting new ventures in the games sector.

'It wasn't guaranteed'

SIT's Bachelor of Screen Arts programme manager, James Wilkinson, said the students deserved credit for putting themselves forward.

"Good on them to have applied and got the funding because it wasn't guaranteed," he said.

The trip comes as SIT works to rebuild its profile following its return to independence as a standalone institution this year, with local leaders talking up its role in supplying the region's future workforce.

For the three students, the immediate payoff is a set of names and faces in an industry in which, according to Pendergrast, a network of peers counts for a great deal.