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3.0 MDKK awarded in last(?) round of Nordic game development support

At the Nordic Game conference in Malmö, Sweden, the recipients of the 2014 Nordic game development grants were announced.

Tarsier Studios AB, Sweden, were granted 500 000 DKK for their project “Hunger”,

Folkenberg Aps, Denmark, 450 000 DKK for “Havfruen”,
Copenhagen Creators Associated ApS, Denmark, 400 000 DKK for “ICE”,
Bedtime Gaming Aps, Denmark, 300 000 DKK for “Dream Factory”,
Glitchnap 2 IVS, Denmark, 300 000 DKK for “Suprematism”,
Teotl Studios Ek.för., Sweden, 300 000 DKK for “Solus”,
Visiontrick Media AB, Sweden, 300 000 DKK for “Calantina”,
Lohika ApS, Denmark, 250 000 DKK for “Machineers”, and
Licorice ehf, Iceland, 200 000 DKK for “Kingdom”.

Since the development support was established in 2006 as part of the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Nordic Game Program, the scheme has received 1,277 applications from Nordic game developers. The program has granted 107 projects funds for game development, selecting just 8% of the applications. Most of the applications are from startup or young companies that are in the early stages of game development and have limited access to funding, which makes this support very important for these companies’ future.

“I personally believe that the Nordic development support has contributed to the strongly growing gaming industries in the Nordic countries, and our region is now clearly recognized as one of the global hot-spots of the games world” says Ólafur Andri Ragnarsson, chairman of the Group of Experts doing the project selection. “We’ve seen the quality of games design rising continuously during the program.”

The number of applications has been growing steadily through the years. This year is a record year, with 185 applications from 175 companies, which is a 16% increase over the previous record year, in 2012. It also means that almost one third of all Nordic game development companies applied this year, which is the last planned year of the support program.

“There is an enormous need for this type of seed investment, and it also seems to pay off well, so it just must continue in one form or another”, says Erik Robertson of Nordic Game Resources AB, who designed and then administered the game development support for its eight years.

"The Group of Experts strongly encourage the Council of Ministers to ensure that the development support continues because of the positive impact it has on the culture-based economy in our region", concludes Ólafur Andri Ragnarsson.