- Studios will each develop vertical slice during three month programme
- Industry experts signed up to provide anchor mentoring and workshops
- First session was led by Dan Pinchbeck, founder of The Chinese Room
Games London has selected eight London studios for the fourth round of its annual Accelerator programme.
The cohort officially convened for the first time yesterday (Wednesday 17 April), during London Games Festival, for a keynote introduction from Dan Pinchbeck, writer and director, founder of the acclaimed The Chinese Room.
The Games London Accelerator will run for a period of three months taking the participants through workshops and lessons covering all aspects of creating and expanding a game studio. The programme culminates in a demo day in July, during which studios will pitch their games to an international audience of publishers and investors.
The eight admitted studios are:
· Arrogant Pixel
· Cartographic Interactive
· Episod Studio
· Fireslug Studio
· NeoNight
· Stormed Inc.
· The Line
· World Away Games
Two of the studios are working on their debut game, five are working on their second game and one has two or more games already released on the market. All of them share an innovative game concept, which they will turn into a vertical slice over the course of the accelerator.
Participating studios will be supported by two distinguished anchor mentors and game industry veterans:
· Mark Wahsbrook, founder of studios like The Blast Furnace (Activision), Rockstar London, Headstrong Games (Kuju London) and Fube Industries.
· Claire Boissiere, studio director at Jumpship, EVP of Studios and Development at Thunderful and Chair at the National Videogame Museum.
The programme itself features 16 sessions covering: publishing strategies, pitching, game design, user acquisition, discoverability, legal guidance, production, marketing strategies, only to name a few.
These sessions will be paired with visits to some of the most prominent game studio and publishers based in the UK capital, where the studios will get a unique opportunity to network and understand how a successful games business is created.
Delivering the accelerator programme sessions will be a number of global game industry experts, including:
· Simon Carless, founder at GameDiscover Co.
· Glenn Gregory, Senior Global Product Manager 3rd Party/ID@Xbox at Microsoft
· Dan Pinchbeck, writer and director, former founder of The Chinese Room
· Anna Mansi, Director of Video Games & Certification at BFI
· Simon Smith, CEO at Thumbfood
· K.A. Pedersen, Head Game Scout at Fireshine Games
The eight studios will also enjoy a guided tour of the Power Up exhibition at The Science Museum, led by Head of Commercial Experiences Mark Cutmore. Games London’s Accelerator is one of the UK’s longest-running talent development programmes for video games and has supported over 30 companies so far. Its sister programme Game Changer, for founders from underrepresented backgrounds, recently completed its first cohort – applications are now open for its second intake: https://www.games.london/gamechanger/ (deadline 20 May)
