With more than 170 applications received for Round 6 of the UK Games Fund things were always going to be highly competitive for applicants. The challenge was compounded for them and us in the UK Games Fund team also when the present circumstances unfolded.
However, the long-listed applicants matched our team’s determination to continue with business as usual. We’ve been working remotely as a dispersed team intent on maintaining a high level of service to our community and supporting as many indie dev studios as we can. In the first couple of weeks of lockdown, we ran a week–long virtual interview schedule for Round 6 with back-to-back interviews.
Initially launched as a round that would fund companies with a prize of £5,000, companies would have joined us at a national showcasing event where they could then pitch for a further £20,000 of grant funding.
Due to the continued uncertainty about what lies ahead in the months to come, and with small businesses feeling the brunt of the economic impact of the pandemic, we have adapted our offering to help as many studios as possible in the development of their own IP.
As a consequence of our revised Round 6 plan, we are supporting the maximum number of companies we can with varying financial packages. These 38 companies will also be able to access the non-financial benefits of UKGTF community participation, including virtual and face-to-face networking, access to exclusive learning materials and invites to exclusive events.
The companies selected for funding from Round 6 of the UK Games Fund are:
Kitty Crawford, Project Lead, Altered Gene, said:
“The impact of this grant would allow us to work on a shortened pre-production timeline, getting the game to a vertical slice quicker, without negatively effecting the quality of the game. We would be able to employ a team of people at the same time and produce a demo that can be shown to investors this fiscal year, versus something that may take another couple of years if we continued at our current pace.
Lastly, this funding is the difference between having contractors swapping in and out on an ad-hoc basis and keeping a close-knit team together to give them more stability during what is, otherwise, a very unstable time.”
Paul Durrant, UKGTF Founder, said:
“The manner in which our applicants adapted to our hastily revised funding programme is a reflection of the creativity and resilience of our sector.
Their determination to do the best they could to carry on business as normal inspired us to maximise the breadth of our support and we’re really looking forward to working with these new projects.”
For more information about the projects selected for funding, visit our Funded Projects page.