Colin MacDonald Portfolio Manager who will be heading up the newly announced £5m Content Funding for the UK Games Fund will be a panelist at our Investor Lunch sponsored by XR Stories in Sheffield on 21st September 2023 at Kollider! Bookings close on Monday 18th for this event and Game Republic members can attend for free. There are only a few more places available so get in quick.
The Investor lunch forms part of our year-long programme of events that have been produced thanks to support from our Official Partners Red Kite Games, Barclays and Escape Technology.
The Investor Lunch will give you the opportunity to ask questions and find out more about this new funding as well as hear from our other investor and company panelists like Hiro Capital, Lewis Silkin, Red Kite Games, Barclays, Square Enix Collective to name a few and you can enjoy a light lunch and some networking too. The new funding round provides a fantastic opportunity for games companies in Yorkshire and the North alongside the already popular prototype fund.
Funding for games of up to £150,000
If you can’t make the event, here are some details and links about this exciting funding announcement. Expressions of interest are being invited now, and even if you have received previous funding from the UK Games Fund, you can still apply. Please read the guidelines and criteria carefully before applying.
Game studios and developers can apply for the new funding, which will be available over the next 18 months, to support games in development and ready them for market. Grants will range between £50,000 to £150,000. £5m has been allocated to the scheme.
This new funding will offer £50,000 – £150,000 commercial games-for-entertainment content grants. And more good news the prototype funding is still available too for grants of up to £30,000 if now is not the time for you to go for the content funding.
MD of Game Republic Jamie Sefton is excited about the fund “There is some incredible work coming out of studios and from indie developers across Yorkshire and The North. On 23rd November we host our GameDevDay with GaMaYo and we already have 13 game demos confirmed which shows the dynamism and creative work going on in the region. There are opportunities for all kinds of companies with this funding, so I hope companies apply and get the support they need to create more exciting games and crucially their own IP too. I am so pleased that this announcement has just happened which means our members will be able to get information firsthand from Colin at the investor lunch”
UK Games Fund Guidance
Full details on the fund are available on this link.
Here is a quick overview of the project criteria below:
Requirements:
- Prototype in place,
- IP owned by the applicant or licensed on terms that are aligned with the project’s long-term requirements,
- Your project must not include gambling elements or mechanisms which could be perceived as such, or any content that we deem to be potentially reputationally damaging (solely at our discretion),
- A primary focus of the applicant’s current development portfolio,
- Commercial games for entertainment focus with potential to secure a commercial audience at scale,
- Eligible costs are staff and contractor costs for hands-on development activity,
- Ineligible projects include non-commercial, non-entertainment games, student projects/graduation works, games incapable of obtaining a PEGI rating, corporate/marketing functions (etc),
- Evidence of understanding of the target audience and plans to access that audience,
- A credible funding rationale in terms of scale of the request for grant funding in the context of company finances, and
- Ability to demonstrate additionality of this funding.
Preferences:
- Project IP originated and developed by the applicant.
- Use of this funding early / mid development cycle.
- Funding to be spent over a 6–12 month period commencing within four weeks of offer, but applications outside this range will be considered. Financial year end issues may need to be managed in project plans and we will advise if that is the case.
Good luck to all who apply and to those considering it, get to the Investor Lunch next week – we shall see you there!