The Game Development World Championship (GDWC) is looking for a fun and friendly mascot to represent the championship, the fun of playing games, and all the hard work game developers do to make the games happen. To find the right kind of mascot, GDWC has launched an open competition for mascot designs and will reward the winner with a cash prize of 1000 euros.

“What do you think the mascot should be like? We’d want it to be friendly and funny, and to be connected to gaming and game development. It can be 2D, 3D, 2.5D, or 4D if you want. Let your ideas flow free!” GDWC describes the competition.

Additional cash prizes may also be given out for exceptional work and fun ideas. Designs can be submitted to the competition until November 28th. Submissions can be made and more details found on the competition website at https://thegdwc.com/mascot-design-competition

The Game Development World Championship is a global online competition for game developers across the world and for all kinds of games on all digital platforms. The 2021 Championship enrollment is currently open and has recently broken all previous participation records with over 2000 development teams from over 100 countries joining in.

PushFar, a mentoring and career progression platform, has partnered with Limit Break, a mentorship program in the games industry, to help improve diversity, inclusion and equality.

Limit Break is using PushFar’s platform to offer a mentorship program for underrepresented people working in the UK gaming industry. Recent figures show that 70% of people working in the gaming industry are male, compared to 28% female and 2% non-binary workers, and that 10% of people are Black, Asian or minority ethnic (BAME).

Founder Anisa Sanusi established Limit Break in 2019 when she found it challenging to find a mentor in the gaming industry. She recognised the value of guidance and role models for underrepresented genders, LGBQT+ and people of colour, with representation in the workforce significantly below the national average of those in work.

Limit Break turned to Pushfar for a solution because the popularity of the mentoring program meant it was time consuming and required scaling. PushFar set up an accessible and intuitive platform, making it easy to match members based on their specific profiles, and allowing the program to have international reach. The platform also enables people to connect with people from specific backgrounds through a self-matching feature. Limit Break now has up to 700 people on their mentoring program, and has seen an increase in member retention.

Ed Johnson, CEO and Founder of PushFar, said: “Having a mentoring relationship is often noted as being one of the most beneficial things you can do for career development. Employees feel motivated and supported when they see senior leaders with whom they can relate. Limit Break has recognised the advantages mentoring can bring to their industry, and taken an active role in addressing diversity and inclusion issues through it. We’re delighted to be part of this solution and hope that our platform will help more people from under-represented groups join the games industry”.

Anisa Sanusi, Founder of Limit Break, said: “Actively mentoring candidates enables us to facilitate connections for a young workforce to those with experience. We want to help to keep the games industry rich with diverse talent and passion, and hope that our program will enable more people from under-represented groups to join the industry. Creating a mentorship program can be a time consuming and complicated task, but by using PushFar we’ve been able to make it simple and easy for everyone involved.”

The Malta Gaming Authority is hereby publishing a series of amendments to the Gaming Authorisations and Compliance Directive (Directive 3 of 2018). The amendments mainly relate to the following:

• The overall number of key function roles and their underlying responsibilities;
• The deadlines by when certain key function requirements are to be observed;
• The persons who shall shoulder responsibility in the absence of duly appointed key function holders;
• The manner and form in which declarations and assurances are to be made by auditors on behalf of licensees during submission of audited financial statements; and
• The applicability of suspicious betting reporting requirements.

These amendments are being published together with a Policy on the Eligibility and Ongoing Competency Criteria for Key Persons. This Policy is intended to revise and collate the existing eligibility criteria while also introducing authorisation renewal requirements related to continuous professional development for existing key persons. Moreover, the Policy clarifies the MGA’s position regarding the compatibility of key function roles with each other in light of the amendments to the Directive.