Launching Our Creative Future: The Manifesto
// creative industries // event // manifesto // our creative future
Creative Enterprise and Ukie are excited to announce the first two cohorts of our new Accelerate: Games programme.
As a part of the BFI-funded Creative Enterprise programme, Accelerate will support early stage games developers and early stage games technology and service companies by running two distinct programmes dedicated to their needs: Accelerate: Game Developers and Accelerate: Games 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. Our partnership with InGame also ensures that we are able to support Scottish businesses in this new Games Accelerator programme.
We are also excited to announce that Amazon AWS is our Technology Partner for this year’s Games Accelerators.
Let’s meet the cohorts.
Accelerate: Game Developers
Alpha Delta Games – Adam Lofting
Alpha Delta Games is the one-person game-design and development studio run by Adam Lofting. Adam spends much of his time prototyping, designing and developing game ideas and over the last six years has taken a couple of these ideas from concept through to publishing. His previous titles include a memory-racing game on iOS and Android, and a card collecting board game about leaving home and trying to furnish your first apartment before your parents visit for Christmas.
In his professional life, Adam has worked in a number of software, tech and data roles including time in the games industry working on automation and build systems. When not thinking about game design he can be found writing and recording music with his dad-band friends (sometimes writing songs about retro video games!). And now, after many projects and prototypes, Adam is excited to be part of the Creative Enterprise Games Accelerator: Developers programme and using this opportunity and focus to see another game design project through from concept to publication.
Astrodreamer Studio – Jordan Hastings
Astrodreamer is a creative and enthusiastic Scottish team born out of the lockdown ready to make a name for ourselves on an industry-wide scale. We craft games that are narrative rich with fun interactivity and leave the player wanting more.
Cave Monsters – Charlotte Sutherland
Cave Monsters is a small independent games developer based in Sheffield, UK. Founded by Charlotte Sutherland (Little Big Planet 3, SEGA All-Stars Racing Transformed, the LEGO series).
Currently developing Lord Winklebottom Investigates, a 1920s murder mystery, point and click adventure featuring a dashing giraffe detective for PC and consoles.
Crescent Games – Kristrun Fridriksdottir
We are a game development studio based in the UK. We’re currently hard at work on the company’s unannounced first project.
Lambic Studios – Coyan Cardenas
Lambic Studios is a one person micro studio based in Manchester striving to make finely crafted, meaningful and emotionally charged narrative driven games.
Lovewish Games – Nina Roussakoff
Our vision is to create games that unashamedly celebrate female fantasies and never compromise on gameplay. With a woman founder and a team that primarily consists of queer women, we aim to bring fresh narratives into the non-casual game space.
Our primary platforms are PC and console, where we have the most experience, and we’re working on our first game – Starstruck. Imagine Boyfriend Dungeon, Slay the Spire, and Tears of Themis mixed and wrapped in the glamour and elegance of Hollywood. You’re a faerie talent agent with a soft spot for struggling actors. Complete roguelite series of events to unlock chapters, design decks with unique synergies, and accumulate permanent perks. Develop warm and loving relationships with your actors – friendly and romantic.
Modest Genius – Tess Cartwright
Modest Genius Ltd. Is a brand-new gaming company who published their first game, Truth Sleuth in June 2021. Truth Sleuth is a free game on iOS and Android platforms for ages 9+. This company was born out of lockdowns from Modest Genius Theatre Company in the South-West. Without being able to perform their Truth Sleuth tour, they switched to a digital story-telling format to continue to harness their creativity. Not only collaborating with international creatives to create this game but also tapping into a whole new international audience the theatre company alone could never have reached before the pandemic.
Modest Genius aim to gamify education. With its members rooted in the performance world they bring a fresh new perspective to the gaming industry, making games like they make live shows, through growing organic ideas that are based on difficult to grasp social concepts not covered in the education system.
Noisy Head Games – Stephen Hollis
Noisy Head Games is a micro indie studio based out of Cambridge, UK. Founded by Steve Hollis, a Technical Sound Designer & Audio Programmer who’s past titles include Planet Zoo, Elite: Dangerous and Jurassic World: Evolution. The company is working on it’s first self published title Beyond the Long Night – a charming twin-stick shooter with roguelike mechanics, chunky pixel art and a blend between retro and modern aesthetics.
Noisy Head Games aims to create homemade worlds from the heart – that are both fun and thought provoking, combining new and old game development technique.
Pretty Digital – Constance Fleuriot
Pretty digital creates fun and thoughtful games and storyworlds, from video games to board games, for intergenerational audiences but often from a child’s perspective. Founded by Constance Fleuriot in 2013 pretty digital not only makes games but also encourages others to have a go, through games jams and workshops and grrrlgames meetups, helping people take their first step into the games industry.
In 2019 pretty digital received UK Games Fund support to create a demo of Kissy Kissy! a family-friendly co-operative game for 4+ year olds and upwards. Level 1 of the game is free to download and the five level version for PC&Mac will launch in 2022. There is also a board game version of Kissy Kissy in development, with a home-print version available for playtesters to download.
Propulsion Games – Ryan Javanshir
Propulsion Games is an indie video game studio based in Southampton, UK. We have a penchant for science-fiction narrative and science related games (in particular rockets!) – which can be seen in our local multiplayer transmedia puzzle game Rockets are Super Hard with a 100+ page PDF guide, and its streamlined solo sibling The Mars Agenda, to the upcoming space station management sandbox game Orbitect.
RAA Studios – Russell Al-Medenni
Russell is experienced Director skilled in Game Design, Unreal Engine, and Unity. Strong professional with a Master’s degree focused in Games Design and Development from the National Film & Television School.
Retro Drive Studio – Joseph Coggins
We are a new and small studio based here in the UK. It started by wanting to create a game that could be released to prove their capabilities. With a love of synthwave at hand they drew their attention to the retro 80s theme and decided to create a game nodding back to 80s cheesy quotes, outstanding neon lights, and awesome speedsters. Creating games based on the 80s retro and synthwave genre, Retro Drive Studio hopes to become The synthwave games studio, based here in the UK known worldwide.
Our indie adventure has taken us to where we are now, with a full 10 level game, complete with story, bespoke soundtrack, customisable cars, and of course a strong retro vibe aesthetic. As the stars aligned, we were fortunate enough to partner-up with Outland Recordings, who agreed to create a full game soundtrack, showcasing some of the biggest names in the retro-wave scene. When it comes to a retro-wave inspired game, the soundtrack is one of the most important elements, so this is where we feel we have something unique. Bringing the essential elements of retro visuals, smooth and dynamic gameplay and a scintillating bespoke Retro soundtrack together, we feel we have created a very special game. We are very proud of how our first game has turned out and cannot wait for people to discover us and our future projects.
Slime Crime – Dan Baker
We are a graduate development team from Falmouth University that are currently developing Slime Café, a first person drink mixing simulator with a rich narrative in a modern fantasy setting. We are a Cornwall based company that hopes to develop exciting and diverse games that can help people feel included, while also creating exciting and new experiences through our narratives. Everyone who plays games deserves to feel included and seen, and this is one of our core values in all we do.
Another of our core values is to help players and developers express themselves and illuminate those around them, so together we can build a friendly and supportive community around our games and help change the games industry for the better.
Stacking Chairs – Sean Mulvenna
Stacking Chairs is an independent story-production studio making exceptional videogames as a viable alternative to film and television drama.
We are award-winning storytellers and game developers out to make waves with a new generation of third-person titles that put story-first: original content with true thematic intent, delivered by modern, accessible gameplay systems.
Studio Somewhere – Cameron Shackleton
We Create Exciting Games That People Love To Play, And We Love To Make!”. Studio somewhere is a small indie team with over 10 years of combined industry experience. We have worked on both critically and commercially successful games, as well as working with global IP’s on AAA games. Collectively we have worked on over four shipped titles.
Two Headed Alien – Jack Sanderson Thwaite
Two Headed Alien is a games studio based in Bristol, founded by Jack Sanderson Thwaite and Fraser Mackenzie, with a particular focus on narrative innovation. They are currently making their debut game Project Diagnosis, a sci-fi investigation about caring for victims of alien abduction. It explores themes of care and listening in a weird and eerie world shot through with offbeat humour. They are collaborating with artist/illustrator Rachel Ford on the visuals for the game.
Yaldi Games – Elena Hoge
Yaldi Games is a small studio with the mission to create meaningful games for good. We make games that can inspire real life activities and enrich players lives beyond digital.
We are a new studio developing our first title, a community driven life sim called Wholesome – Out and About. While playing the game, players will connect with nature and pick up exciting recipes and DIY instructions, that can inspire them to recreate activities in real life. Yaldi has already won the Converge Creative Challenge, the Young Innovator Award, the Global Social Shifters Innovation Challenge and the UK Games Fund, which allowed us to build our vertical slice and show it off to a broad range of excited publishers.
Accelerate: Games Tech and Services
Bridge Network Group – Mikayla Sinead
We support Future Leaders, Organisations and Communities to lead with a more inclusive, confident and curious mindsets. Dedicated to supporting, developing, and motivating the next wave of inclusive leaders across the gaming sector at every level. Through events, workshops, training, and campaigns Bridge Network Group are here to bridge the gap between potential talent and current decision-makers.
About Mikayla: I have a passion for leading with an inclusive intersectional mindset whilst centring joy. My career has focussed on developing more inclusive workplaces & future leaders. I am on a mission to build and Black Women centred, though not exclusive, community of future change-makers everywhere but especially in the video game industry. I stay curious and open to what we can discover and how we can make a lasting change in the power landscape. I join the programme with a wealth of experience in supporting young and diverse talent to reach positions of influence and leadership; I had the great honour of being listed in the Birmingham’s 30 under 30 in 2019 because of this work. I am excited to take this journey in the gaming sector and do my part in improving representation.
IMPRESS – Ashley Gwinnell
Founded by award-winning independent game developer Ashley Gwinnell (prev: Force Of Habit, Game Jolt, Mediatonic) – IMPRESS is a complete toolkit for video game publishing. Marketing plan essentials, media monitoring & reporting tools, and social & community growth metrics – discover, monitor, analyse, report – everything needed to grow a successful games business.
IMPRESS’s first product – Coverage Bot (media monitoring) – tracks customers’ game’s mentions across the web, YouTube and Twitch, and notifies them in Discord/Slack, so they never miss a live stream event, ever again. Plus, tracking competitors, benchmarking, audience building, and an influencer program, all coming 2022.
Empowering indie games; democratising games publishing.
Game UI Database – Edd Coates
The Game UI Database is a comprehensive reference tool that aims to help drive UX decisions and provide inspiration to UI Artists in the games industry. The site was featured on Mashable, GamesIndustry.biz, and Eurogamer, won Best Tools Provider at the Pocket Gamer Mobile Game Awards 2021, and is now the industry’s leading resource on game UI design and development. It is used by AAA studios across the world, including Insomniac Games, Arkane, Double Fine, Frontier Developments, Sumo, Splash Damage and Ubisoft Montreal.
Hungry Billy – Benjamin Drees
Built from the Launchpad incubator program in Cornwall, we are a co-development studio that offers game development support at any stage of a project, in code development, art creation, motion capture and design consultancy.
Games Jobs Live – Colin MacDonald
Games Jobs Live runs livestream recruitment events designed specifically for the games industry. Broadcast on YouTube, they’re free and open to all attendees, whether they already work in the games industry, another sector, or have recently graduated.
InSpirit360 – Sarah McAndrew
Inspirit360 Ltd is a new startup focusing on immersive experience design for apps, games, XR and live events. Currently in the R&D phase for Outfitt – a virtual world for female gamers who love fashion with the aim of establishing a female led XR design studio in Cornwall. Areas of interest include virtual worlds, open worlds, gaming, creative app design, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, augmented reality and immersive mixed reality events and spaces. We explore emerging technologies and the potential of the future metaverse to affect society and the natural environment in positive ways.
Lowtek Games – Alastair Low
Lowtek Games is a new indie studio run by Alastair Low focused on creating games and tools to help dyslexic players enjoy games more. We create new retro homebrew games for the NES, dreamcast and current platforms.
N Coders – Melanie Band
When we’re not working on projects for our customers, we’re developing our products and expanding our expertise in XR. We recently launched a VR training application, have a VR game in development and are experimenting with the creative application of augmented reality wearables.
Pav Gekko Productions – Pawel Gmyterko
Pav Gekko Productions provides high quality audio services to help you design, plan, and realise industry standard interactive and linear music composition, sound design and audio integration for games and media. The company has been founded on the expertise of Pawel Gmyterko aka Pav Gekko – a former computer games producer and classically-trained composer. Notable achievements include BEST MUSIC AWARD at Midlands Movies Awards 2018, which helped to fuel the vision of the company. At Pav Gekko Productions, we have a deep understanding of the challenges of game development and our mission is to bridge a gap between the art audio production and game development standards and practises.
Our latest credits include Pagan Witchcraft – an album released by UNIVERSAL MUSIC PM UK, Tintin Match – a game based on a classic comic book, Doodle Jump 2 – a sequel to a legendary mobile game and Smalland – an upcoming multiplatform open-world survival game. At Pav Gekko Productions we strive to stay up to date on game dev technology, always looking forward to the possibilities it brings to the art of storytelling.
Pocket Size Hands – Gary McCartan
We are Pocket Sized Hands. A passionate, talented and dedicated team that loves making games and creative experiences. Based in Sunny Dundee, we are an Independent Game studio with extensive experience across PC, mobile, and Console
We work with a number of different clients big and small and currently are leading live-ops development on the Rick and Morty title: Pocket Mortys and recently helped bring Oddworld Soulstorm to release on PS5 and PC.
Web App Services – Ben Ackland
Our core team has 13 years’ experience working together to design, develop and deliver software projects and products, partnering with a broad range of customers in a variety of sectors. In 2020 we refocussed on game tech, building on our technical backgrounds and creative drive. We have since established ourselves as an innovator in voice and conversational AI for entertainment products, starting with CAGE – our Conversational Adventure Game Engine. If you want to explore or integrate human-computer conversation into your game world, speak to us.
