Games Academy students recognised at The Rookies 2026
18 August 2026
Three entries from Falmouth's Games Academy have been named finalists in the Rookie Awards 2026, an international platform that celebrates emerging talent in games, animation, visual effects and design. Among them is Jack Ferrari, who returns to the finalist list for the second year running, this time recognised as a triple finalist across two entries. Spindlewood Studios also gained more recognition, having already picked up the Most Striking Visuals award at this year's Games Academy Expo for Atelier's Key.
Jack Ferrari – BA(Hons) Game Art
Little Lemon Shop
Little Lemon Shop is an Unreal Engine environment built during Jack’s final year of Game Art, depicting a small Mediterranean hillside town centred on a fictional lemon shop, Giallo Canarino. The project pushed him into new technical territory, including RGB masking for material variation, runtime layer painting for wear and tear and his first proper use of SpeedTree for foliage, some of it textured using photogrammetry captured at the Eden Project's Mediterranean Biome in Cornwall.
Little Lemon Shop earned Jack Rookie of the Year finalist places in the Game Development and Career Opportunities: Sierra Division categories. He was also part of the Spindlewood Studios team behind Atelier's Key, in addition to being a finalist in 2025 for Spiderwick Manor and El Dorado, making this his second consecutive year on the shortlist.
You can view Jack's Little Lemon Shop entry on The Rookies, and see more of his work on Artstation.
Spindlewood Studios
Atelier's Key
Atelier's Key is a dark fantasy first-person shooter set in a decaying world of wood and gold, where colossal trees and sprawling roots have consumed the landscape. Players take on a character severed from a collective consciousness known as the Hive Mind, using a mysterious keygun to shoot, grapple and unlock their way through the world while piecing together fragments of their own identity and the truth behind its enigmatic creator, ‘The Carver’.
Built in Unreal Engine 5.6, the game was made by a team that included Jack Ferrari alongside Harry Partridge, Izzy Foo, Kodie Holland, Sam Lloyd, Shavonne Inniss, Ward Betts, David Chodkiewicz and Dylan Gobey. The entry earned a Rookie of the Year finalist place in the Console & PC category, alongside a Draft Selection award.
Atelier's Key is free to download and play on itch.io. You can see the full entry on The Rookies.
Chris Metherell - Game Development: Art
Various projects
Graduate Chris Metherell submitted a portfolio spanning three projects that showcase procedural tools, hand-crafted environments and technical shader work built in Unreal Engine 5.6, Houdini and Substance Designer.
His entry was named a Rookie of the Year finalist in the Career Opportunities: Remedy Entertainment category, alongside a Draft Selection award.
You can view Chris's full entry on The Rookies.
These finalist entries are also in the running for a People's Choice Award, decided by shares on Facebook. If you'd like to support our graduates and students, visit their Rookies entries and use the Facebook share button near the bottom of the page.
The Draft
Tara Saunders, a 2025 BA(Hons) Game Art graduate, also made this year's Rookies Draft Selection, an award given to entries that rank highly with the judging panel without going on to a finalist place. Her portfolio of stylised 2D concept art and pixel art draws on a year of game jams, including Shaped in Stars, I Want to Live, Spirit Slash and Last Known Signal. See her entry on The Rookies.
Winners of the Rookie Awards 2026 will be announced on 27 August.
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