The UK Government has received £4 million and aim to fund game developers to create presentable prototypes of their games. The UK Games Fund hopes to “boost the UK’s games business and talent ecosystem”.
Grants up to £25,000 will be set aside to graduates and students so that these prototypes can be made.
The biggest fallback with many Indie games projects is the lack of funding. Whilst there’s been an increasing interest in indie games, developers are often forced to open online fund-raisers through services such as Kickstarter; however Kickstarter reportedly only has a rate of 36.79% successfully funded projects.
In theory, the UK Games Fund should skip past the funding barrier in game’s development and many smalltime developers will have a “greater chance” in becoming a “significant success”.
The Guardian quotes Ed Vaizey (Minister for Culture and the Digital Economy):
“This fund will give small businesses, startups and individuals the support they need to better attract private investment and go on to create the blockbusters of tomorrow.”
It’s yet unclear how many projects will become successful from this new funding system. Teams with an eligible company, project plan and with apparent potential are promised to be funded, with additional funds of £50,000 grants for some projects to advance.
The UK could become a thriving place for indie developers to create their new projects and it opens up the possibility of new jobs, new UK games IPs and for the UK to become a popular place for game’s development.
SOURCE: (UK GAMES FUND)
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