Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture and the Digital Economy has today announced the successful applicants to the second round of the Government’s UK Games Fund.
The UK Games Fund attracted an incredible 235 applications for the second round of the Fund. The 23 businesses winning grant funding are located all over the UK – including Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle, Liverpool, Belfast, Bristol, Brighton, Guildford and London, and represent the best of the UK’s emergent games development, innovation and creativity.
The £4 million, four-year UK Games Fund is accelerating the growth of games clusters around the UK – by helping creative young businesses develop new games idea and by supporting talent. The Fund will run until 2019 and will provide grants of up to £50,000 to support video games projects, create jobs and help develop new talent.
Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture and the Digital Economy said:
“The UK’s creative industries are one of our greatest success stories, generating more than £84bn a year for the UK economy. Our video games industry is world-renowned, but we know that many small businesses sometimes lack the capital to help develop their ideas and attract private investment. Our fund is helping bridge that gap and help developers take their ideas from the drawing board and into production.”
The talent element of the UK Games Fund – the Tranzfuser™ initiative, has also got off to a flying start. A total of 19 teams of eager young graduates have been chosen to develop their games ideas over 10 weeks this summer, hosted in 10 regional centres covering the breadth of the UK. They are all working towards a showcase of their working games prototypes at a leading consumer-facing games forum in September.
Paul Durrant, Managing Director, UK Games Talent and Finance CIC said:
“With 235 applications, there was unprecedented demand for our funding in this round so these successful applicants really do represent the best of the UK’s emergent games development talent. Now that the success stories from our first round are just beginning to emerge, we’re expecting to see a similar level of success from these projects.”
The successful applicants to the second round are:
Brightrock Games Ltd, Acid Nerve Ltd, Penny Black Studios Ltd, Draw and Code Ltd, A Brave Plan Ltd, Rekim Ltd, Mode 7 Ltd, S2 Entertainment Ltd, Skoogmusic Ltd, Fireblade Software Ltd, Twisted Tree Games Ltd, Beatnik Games Ltd, Broken Fence Games Ltd, Kinesthetic Games Ltd, Auroch Digital Ltd, Rhizome Games Ltd, Damp Gnat Ltd, Talony Games Ltd, Me, We Studios Ltd, Oddtales Ltd, SMAC Games Ltd, Silo Games Ltd, Inlifesize Ltd
The UK Games Fund is managed by UK Games Talent and Finance CIC and works with organisations such as Digital Catapult, BAFTA, Ukie, Tiga, Creative England, Creative Scotland and BFI.
More information on the next round of funding will be released after the summer.