Creative Enterprise Unveils the Investment Readiness 2024 Cohort
//
Creative Enterprise and Ukie are excited to announce the two cohorts of our Games Foundations Programmes.
As a part of the BFI-funded Creative Enterprise programme, Foundations will support early stage games developers and early stage games and immersive technology and service companies by running two distinct programmes dedicated to their needs: Foundations for Games Studios and Foundations for Games and Immersive Tech and Services
The programmes will provide business advice and support to early-stage games developers and early-stage games technology and service companies focusing on the distinct needs of each strand.
We’re excited to have partnerships in place with InGame, Clwstwr and Northern Ireland Screen which means we are able to support Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish businesses in the Games Scale Up programme.
InGAME is the UK’s world-class centre for research and innovation in games and immersive technologies, funded by the AHRC Creative Industries Clusters Programme as part of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, led by Abertay University in collaboration with the Universities of Dundee and St Andrews. Industry partnerships include Sony Interactive Entertainment, Microsoft, Roblox, Outplay Entertainment, 4J Studios, the BBC, Innovate UK, Creative Dundee, Creative Scotland, Dundee City Council Scottish Enterprise, V&A Dundee, Ukie and Women in Games.
Northern Ireland Screen is the national screen agency for Northern Ireland. We are committed to maximising the economic, cultural and educational value of the screen industries for the benefit of Northern Ireland. This goal is pursued through our mission to accelerate the development of a dynamic and sustainable screen industry and culture in Northern Ireland.
Clwstwr aims to put innovation at the core of media production in South Wales – moving Cardiff’s thriving screen sector from strength to leadership.
___
Let’s meet the cohorts.
Foundations for Games Studios
Big Brain Games LTD – Luke Weston
We at Big Brain believe that there’s more to VR than trying to recreate reality. Big Brain Games is a start-up studio with the aim of creating experiences that showcase the best of what VR has to offer. Ever wondered what it might be like to live on Mars? We can do that. Fancy working an office job? We can show you how boring it really is. Want to live out a horror movie? You don’t, but we can show you anyway. Our vision is to take your vision and bring it to life.
Chaotic Order – Andrew Campbell
A company pioneering ‘digitally ergonomic’ gaming: It engages them in an immersive world and plot, introducing them to characters who provide in-universe guided meditations and introducing them to deeper philosophical themes, all in a user experience that does not overstimulate or tax their senses.
Hark is a hybrid meditation app and adventure game with a non-denominational outlook, embracing diverse philosophical and spiritual beliefs, including rationalist and atheist ones.
it follows the journey of a young ‘angel’ who exceeds the limits of its world, encountering other creatures with spirits very different to its own, each of whom has diverse kinds of meditations and lessons to teach, drawing from traditions from across places and times in our own world.
Continental Games – Bradley Ramsay
Continental Games is an indie studio with the goal of making Caribbean culture-influenced games and providing freelance programming services. It started as a pitch in 2019 that got me into the UK, along with support from a fellow startup. I then came up with prototypes for games, finally settling on the puzzler Deja Vu to further develop due to the feedback it received. After attending and showcasing my games at several events, I started forming a network with developers and entrepreneurs in the Yorkshire region. And now I aim to launch Deja Vu as my first game on Steam.
Death by Misadventure – Adam Carter-Groves
Death by Misadventure is a one person games company aiming to make small games that marry mechanics with narrative.
Dream Beaver Studios – Andrew Brennwald
Dream Beaver Studios makes green games that entertain, enlighten, and engage players around themes of ecology, conservation, and sustainability. Our mass-appeal titles balance fun, fact, and fantasy to get players curious about the natural world. We partner with environmental organizations to bridge the gap between our curious players and real-world action.
We practice what we preach through sustainable business practices, low power consumption software techniques, and contributions to proven carbon offset programs. We highly value inclusive creativity, community engagement, and sustainable working lifestyles for our team.
Fairer Games – Robin Milton
Fairer Games is a studio with a core focus on diversity through the content created and the teams behind it. Working on their first title which focuses on a period of women’s history which has not yet been explored through gameplay.
Robin is the founder of Fairer Games, a Women in Games Ambassador and a passionate advocate for the growth of the local games development industry in Norfolk, UK. She is an organiser of the community group Norfolk Game Developers, supporting and growing games development talent and studios in the area.
Infinite Worlds – Tim Page
We are a game development studio, aiming to build our own original games and provide development services to our clients. We bring extensive technical experience, including game backend and server side.
Our ambition is to create persistent worlds that can run themselves; stories that can write themselves.
Lucky Ghost – James Whitcroft
Lucky Ghost is a new games studio, making playful, meaningful video game adventures for people. We believe fun, satisfying play combined with meaningful themes can provide lasting joy, curiosity and inspiration.
New Party Rules Labs – Imwen Eke
New Party Rules Labs, We create space for adults to play!
We are an experimental games studio and research lab that sits at the intersection of play, digital technology, enterprise and entertainment.
We focus on
Play in adulthood, social adventures and experimentation
We believe in
Human connection, intercultural audiences, and cultural relevance.
We seek to introduce
New perspective, new narratives and new voices.
We enable adults of all ages to imagine, create, and play together.
We are developing our first title, Heroes, Villains and History.
A multiplayer immersive mixed reality experience in 3 acts. Played live in AR VR & real-time.
North Sea Games – Brentton White
North Sea Games is a team of Abertay University graduates who have begun to develop games for the Roblox platform, one of the first to do so in the Scottish Ecosystem.
North Sea Games is based in Dundee, Scotland, and has previously been admitted to Roblox’s Accelerator Program, which saw them provide both funding and technical assistance to one of North Sea Games’ projects.
Proximal Games – Jin Lei
We are a new startup currently working on our first game with an ambition to make games that are played online, of international significance as well as social and educational merit.
The sort of games that teaches you something, which could lead to positive changes in your life.
Our first project simply explained, is a modern, and good-looking third-person shooter with an educational twist, that provides a glimpse into complex mental health problems. It is about a female soldier with psychological issues that is cast in a positive light. The plan is to develop a game to support the work of charities.
Rainshelter Games – Eloise Best
Eloise Best is a Manchester-based game developer, writer, and creative. She studied BA Media & Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London and MA Screenwriting at The University of Manchester, and is passionate about creating wholesome, narrative-driven games that have a positive impact on players. She currently sells printable party games on Etsy and publishes guided journals for young people.
ReadGraves – Samuel Read-Graves
My name is Sam Read-Graves, a creator in Suffolk. Once listed in Develops 30 Under 30.
The main focus of my creative activities has been to develop interactive software which engages the public in an unexpected way. Culturally, everything I have made has had a very ‘British’ feel, this is usually down to the comedy and setting, and in the past, I have worked here with the BFI.
For the past 5 years, I have been a lecturer teaching others to develop video games, but now I have started releasing my own projects again, starting with Trolley Problem, Inc.
store.steampowered.com/app/1582680/Trolley_Problem_Inc
Somehow Games – Adam Frost
Somehow Games is a new independent studio aiming to create fun-filled, easy-to-pick-up games that value players’ time, feature vibrant hand-drawn art, and provide engaging and meaningful experiences.
Founder Adam Frost worked as a musician and a music teacher for more than a decade before returning to education to study game development. Since then, he has spent time as a member of a game development cooperative and has worked as an industry freelancer in programming, composition and sound design roles.
Somehow’s first title is currently in development: ‘Space Needs Space!’, one robot’s quest to declutter the universe.
StakeHouse Games – Andy Sandham
StakeHouse Games is a new company comprised of a few key creative fiends behind the original tomb raider series of games.
We are currently bringing our first game to life, a retro action adventure with exploration, nail-biting traversal, puzzles, and a healthy dose of trap and enemy dodging, warped via the lens of early survival horror games and 50’s British gothic horror films.
We’re also raising the stakes in retro game design, utilising university academic research into nostalgia triggers, feeding them back into our designs to nail down the beating heart of the retro monster…
Weird Wood Games – Joe Nelson
Weird Wood games is a new company set up by Joe Nelson to bring to life a large back catalogue of ideas and prototypes. Using years of development experience and a wide group of industry contacts to create short-form single-player experiences for console, PC and even VR. These titles will be ideal for subscription-based models like Gamepass and Playstation plus. Each one is a completely new Ip exploring fantastic new worlds and characters and built around a core of strong design and world-building.
Foundations for Games and Immersive Tech and Services
Studio 316 – Joe Clark
Studio 316 is a small team of passionate, dedicated, game-loving, developers, designers and artists, established during the team’s final year at the Games Academy of Falmouth University in 2020/21. We dedicate our development and artistic services to client projects, assisting others in the creation of their own IP from Studio to Studio Co-Development through to individual start-ups looking to bring their visions to life.
Dusty Tusk Studio – Zara Sharma
Dusty Tusk Studio are game design specialists, providing architectural visualizations, 3D models and other visual content.
Our game design studio is based in Worcestershire, UK. Founded in May 2022. We aim to enhance the availability of digital skills within our local area and hope that creativity and art can flourish.
Dusty Tusk’s founder and lead game designer, Zara Sharma, has experience in game development dating back to the early 2000s. Zara is a generalist developer, being educated in game design and programming, and having a good understanding of the overall workings of games.
Greenlit Capital – Peter Storey
Greenlit is the UK’s premier funding platform and marketplace for the creative sector. Launched in 2019, we help filmmakers, theatre creators, musicians and game makers bring their work to life.
Our crowdfunding platform has the highest success rate of any of our competitors for creative projects. By providing specific support, training and encouragement, we help our creatives discover and engage their audience and turn them into supporters.
We are expanding rapidly, including a full marketplace for video-on-demand, virtual goods, physical merchandise and live experiences. Our goal is to turn artists into entrepreneurs, enabling them to create their work on a sustainable basis.
Dynamix Media – James K. Wight
James received a distinction for his MA in International Film Business from the University of Exeter and London Film School. Since then, he’s been a guest speaker on the topic of transmedia storytelling at the University of Cambridge.
He founded Dynamix with the goal of creating digital IP for the Gen Z audience. Their ethos is about evolving storytelling for a new media generation – using animation and short-form content to repurpose the social space into something artistic and creative. Through direct audience engagement, they aim to collaborate with brands and build an invested community across digital media.
Fresh Seed Ltd – Sarah Brewster
Fresh Seed is a People & Culture consultancy supporting businesses within the Games & Creative Sector. Our mission is to develop healthy, thriving studios – not only because we understand the challenges faced with talent wars, skill shortages and workforce needs, but because we’re passionate about the sector and are UKIE members.
If you are being kept awake wondering how you can develop and grow your studio whilst attracting the best talent, we are here to give you a peaceful night’s sleep and help you. With our range of documents, surveys and expertise we take care of all your people & culture issues.
We’re often thought of as a favourite colleague; someone who will take the stress away, help you navigate the corporate drivel, and grow your studio.
As “fresh” thinkers, we’re always coming up with better ways to make our clients’ lives easier.
Define Logic Interactive Ltd – Diana Finley
Watching graduates and colleagues struggle to get work in the industry, we knew we needed to change that. We at Define Logic have made it our mission to help students all over the country find the experience they need to get that first job in games. Our associates gain industry experience and contacts for the future while completing work for games-oriented clients. We showcase new talent and welcome innovation with every client and freelancer that comes through our company. We want to make lasting impressions that stay with people for years to come.
www.definelogicinteractive.com
SideFest Ltd – Jason Boomer
SideFest provides flexible QA Testing to small and mid-sized game studios and is a Games-as-Edutech provider to Midlands-based schools. SideFest’s goal is to raise awareness and broaden participation in the Leicestershire games industry while collaborating with studios to create opportunities for young people.
Jason Boomer is SideFest’s founder; he lectures on Data Analysis in Esports, and he is working on his PhD studying culture and moderation in online gaming communities. Jason’s award-winning work on Value Generation in the Let’s Play community draws on his 18+ years running a let’s play community, and it has been published in the academic press.
JadeBlok Ltd – Yao Yao
JadeBlok innovates tools that enable non-tech users and gamers to create avatar content frictionlessly with only their mobile phones. The avatar allows true expression of their body movement and facial expression so that they can bring their movement-focused hobbies from the physical world to the digital world.
Gingerkoiki Studio Ltd – Natalya Koval
Creating emotionally engaging XR experiences that are not only exciting but also financially profitable. Their first project is XR experience Extreme journey – the user goes on a journey as a tourist but it’s set in an extreme war zone area so it mixes extreme tourism with adventure and danger.
Pop-up Live – Aileen Brady
Pop-up Live has its origins in a sci-fi crime novel I was writing for a Masters in Creative Writing at Napier. The course went entirely online during lockdown. On top of that, I was introduced to the world of interactive storytelling and got hooked. Last summer I took part in Creative Bridge. This start-up programme supports creatives wanting to develop projects using technology in innovative ways. The ambition with Pop-up Live is to develop a dedicated interactive space where indie games meet indie pop-ups.
