MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Five UK indie studios have each won a grant that will boost the production of their current projects.
An intense two-day workshop in Liverpool saw 14 companies pitch their ideas in front of delegates from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, industry body Northwest Vision and Media, as well as Pixel-Lab.
The whole initiative, called ‘Get In The Game’, saw five studios awarded the top prize of £10,000 to use in prototype development.
Now in its second year, Get In The Game is designed to encourage collaboration between studios in the North West and Yorkshire region, and also helps all participants in their pitching techniques.
This year’s event awarded £10,000 to Liverpool firms Milky Tea and Pixinworks, Manchester companies Savvy Productions and Connect2Media, and Leeds based Grant Midwinter.
For the winners more pitching lies ahead. The five groups will now be mentored by experienced industry luminaries, and will eventually pitch their games to Sony, Blitz, and Channel 4 for full development funding.
"This is the second year we’ve run Get In The Game and we’re delighted that there was such an increased amount of interest. The variety of proposals was phenomenal, and I can’t wait to see how the prototypes develop,” said Enda Carey, head of games and digital content at Northwest Vision and Media.
Pixel-Lab’s managing director Toby Barnes added: "One of the best things about Get In The Game is that it’s attracting companies that don’t make traditional games, and they often bring fresh, innovative ideas that are a bit left field. This year we have had a rush of new multiple platform projects, digital distributed games, and interesting control mechanics. It’s exciting that this project could lead to some very unusual games being produced.”
