Malachi Gow has been building games since he was 17. Not at a studio, not on a course, just him, a laptop, and a drive to make something. By the time he graduated in 2025, he'd taught himself the entire development pipeline from concept to launch. He'd already shipped titles, including a mental health game he designed around a simple question: how do you make something educational feel as compelling as the games people actually want to play? What he didn't have was a way into the industry. Growing up in London and eligible for free school meals, he wasn't exposed to the informal routes that open doors, like events and conferences. Winning the IG50 helped change that. As a direct result of his win, Malachi was matched with South Westerly Games through Into Games' Boost paid placement programme. Over nine weeks, working three days a week alongside a small indie team, he took on a QA role that quickly became something more. With support from a professional QA mentor, he built a bug-tracking and community feedback system in Notion entirely on his own initiative, sourcing every piece of feedback back to its original Discord message, forum post, or Steam discussion thread. The team at SWG not only used the work but loved working with Malachi with Freddy, his studio mentor, describing the end of the placement as "heartbreaking." "I felt like part of the team," Malachi says. "It felt like a little bit of a family." Beyond QA, he contributed UI mockups, market research, and ideation sessions. He came away with a sharper understanding of what working in an indie studio actually looks like, far more exploratory and human than he'd expected, and a much clearer sense of what he wants his own path to look like. He's now in an ongoing freelance arrangement with the studio, was accepted to showcase at the GDLX exhibition, and is continuing to develop his own games alongside his other work. His advice to anyone sitting on the fence: "Give it a shot. I thought I wasn't worthy to win this, but I gave it my best effort anyway, and it only worked in my favour."