The fourth round of companies to be awarded grants from the UK Games Fund has been announced today.
Eleven projects including PC, console and VR games developed by companies based across the UK have been selected and will now receive grants to develop their prototypes and undertake to support fellow developers with knowledge-sharing.
The fourth round of funded projects is the most demographically diverse group of companies since the UK Games Fund launched in 2015; 40% of project development teams are female-led and for the first time no London-based companies have made the final selection.
Competition for this round of funding was particularly tough as applicants seeking funding from the UK Games Fund were encouraged to self-select which route was most appropriate for them with the introduction of the Pitch Development Programme. Companies with past experience of shipping a game, a development team in place and ready to mobilise, a business plan and strategy for sustainability in place and with an already well-defined USP were encouraged to apply via the direct application route to Round 4.
Minister of State for Digital and the Creative Industries Margot James said:
It’s marvellous to see grants awarded to companies that reflect such strength and diversity in the video games sector across the UK.
The UK Games Fund has a proven track record of supporting innovative early stage games development, and I look forward to seeing these teams realise their creative potential.
To date, the UK Games Fund has supported over 90 projects, and has a growing community with the increasingly popular Tranzfuser competition currently underway with 18 graduate development teams participating.
Paul Durrant, Managing Director, UK Games Talent and Finance CIC said:
Our aim is to grow the UK’s early-stage games development ecosystem using a community-led approach and these new grant recipients have all agreed to give back significant time to support other companies through various peer-to-peer activities as part of the Creative Industries Sector Deal. Sharing knowledge and experience in this way adds significant value to the investment.