1UP Placements Scheme: Simmersive Education for Games Development Professional Skills

This education paper presents the 1UP scheme, an award winning industry simulation. The 1UP scheme provides students with structured studio-style experience within an academic context. Students are directly employed (and paid) by the university in-house games studio for a 6-week summer placement. 1UP facilitates interdisciplinary student teams to develop commercialquality games under professional supervision. This paper outlines the scheme's structure, the design philosophy of the studio, and the educational impact. We detail some case studies of the games we have produced, including 'Disc-Go!', 'StaffsVerse', and the award winning 'MechHead'. These success projects and the student outcomes demonstrate the value of this approach in supporting skill development, portfolio enhancement, and employability. The 1UP model represents a scalable, award-winning approach to bridging the gap between education and industry within games development education.