In its funding round for 2022, the location initiative Gamecity Hamburg supports six promising games projects from Hamburg with a total sum of 398,000 euros through its Prototype Funding program. The Gamecity Hamburg Prototype Funding is awarded as a non-repayable grant. The program enables Hamburg-based developers, studios and start-ups to develop convincing prototypes of digital games for the competitive international games market.

Because of the high quality of the projects submitted, the awarding committee decided to fully use the available budget of 400,000 euros for this year’s Prototype Funding program. The application phase for the next funding round will start in spring 2023. The diversity and quality of the applications demonstrate a positive development of Hamburg’s games industry and a successful promotion of young talent at the location.

Dennis Schoubye, Head of Gamecity Hamburg, explains: “We see a positive dynamic in the quality of the applications for the Prototype Funding. We also see positive effects from other support programs like our Games Lift Incubator and our new event format ‘Pitch Level Up’. Three of the funded projects are from teams and developers who have previously completed our Games Lift Incubator. In addition, there is a good mix among the funding recipients ranging from start-ups to game studios that are already firmly anchored in Hamburg.”

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The funded projects in 2022:

• Hexagone by Tiny Roar – €80,000
• Super Party Verse by Super Crowd Entertainment – €80,000
• Dein Skat by Bestjack Entertainment – €70,000
• Alchymia by Pseudoscience Interactive – €70,000
• Prospector by Symmetry Break Studio – €70,000
• Monstersongs VR by Denise Koch – €28,000

Hexagone by Tiny Roar is a relaxing strategy-adventure game in which players create and explore different worlds. As adventurers, players individually uncover their game world and its secrets by laying cards on a mysterious world map full of treasures, expeditions, and hidden ruins.

Players can experience a fun multiplayer party in the mobile app Super Party Verse from Super Crowd Entertainment. In a colorful hub world, players can create mini-game events in a growing community, join existing parties and actively fill the world with life by designing their own rooms and avatars. New content will also find its way into the Super Party Verse through brand partners.

Dein Skat by Bestjack Entertainment takes the traditional German card game Skat to a new level as a single-player experience through a sophisticated AI, an entertaining story mode, motivating quests, and numerous challenges for beginners and advanced players in a lovely designed look.

In the construction and management game Alchymia by Pseudoscience Interactive, players must save their city from a horde of undead creatures with the help of alchemical equipment and various potions. In the turn-based game, players make tactical decisions that influence the course of the game. Julia Reberg, the creative mind behind Pseudoscience Interactive and Alchymia, is an alumna of the first round of the Games Lift Incubator in 2020.

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Prospector by Symmetry Break Studio is a narrative 2D-adventure game with an intriguing story and an innovative dialogue system. Players experience their adventure in a metropolis on the edge of a crater doused in toxic fog and can only survive using mysterious masks. Symmetry Break Studio are alumni of the Games Lift Incubator 2021.

In the virtual rock musical game Monstersongs VR by Denise Koch, players experience stories and songs of numerous monsters in an abandoned theater, solve tricky puzzles and face their own feelings. Monstersongs VR bridges the gap between musical shows and gaming. With the concept for the game Denise Koch participated in the Games Lift Incubator 2021.

From March 4 to April 11, a total of 18 solo developers, start-ups, and companies from Hamburg applied for this round of the Gamecity Hamburg Prototype Funding.

The selection was made by an awarding committee consisting of Hamburg-based games industry experts Nina Müller (Head of Publishing, Goodgame Studios), Jonas Hüsges (Publishing Director, Daedalic Entertainment), Valentina Birke (Head of Project, Indie Arena Booth), Jens Unrau (Head of Department Media and Digital Economy, Ministry of Culture and Media Hamburg) and Dennis Schoubye (Head of Gamecity Hamburg).

The successful applicants not only convinced the committee with their project presentations but also with the potential of their projects in other criteria, like the market potential, their team structure, and the promotion of young talent.

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About the Gamecity Hamburg Prototype Funding

The Gamecity Hamburg Prototype Funding in its current form was launched in 2020. Including the most recent funding round, the program has so far supported the development of 22 prototypes with a total funding amount of 1,240,000 euros.