Into Games Boost is currently the most successful independent games work placement programme in the UK. It provides 3 months of paid work to incredibly talented young people in a wide range of games disciplines, from programming to community management.

With over 150 studios signed up to take on talent, it's a ray of hope in an otherwise difficult time for entry-level games jobs in the UK and globally.

The programme's recent evaluation (you can see that here) shows that 88% of the Boost particpants, who are all from working-class and low-income backgrounds, went on to get full, part-time, and major freelance work after their placement period concluded.

This is real impact, and it's changing lives for the better - you can read some of the stories here.

With 100% of participants and employers recommending the programme, we have a working, powerful and practical way to build up young, diverse talent into the sector, but we need help.

There is currently zero public funding for this kind of work.

We're raising £25,000 to fund at least 10 paid placements in UK studios for our 2026 cohort. That's 10 talented people from working-class and low-income backgrounds getting a real, paid foot in the door.

No "who you know". Just a fair shot.

Each placement costs £3750 to deliver, and Into Games is part-funding that through our existing charity income - we need help to raise the extra £2500 per person and thats where you come in.

For every £2500 raised here, we will place one of our 10.

Could you fund one of our placements? Could you donate to help make our UK games sector more diverse?

Please share far and wide!

(This is a picture of our wonderful 2026 cohort of IG50 winners, all of whom are eligible for Boost this year.)