London Games Festival

Yesterday we celebrated the end of the 2024 Games London Accelerator, by attending the Science Museum Group's Power Up exhibition, hosted by Mark Cutmore, Head of Commercial Experiences. Mark led a captivating tour on the history of video games and their remarkable growth over the years. After the tour, our cohort had the exciting opportunity to play and experience the games that inspired them. Thank you to Mark and the Science Museum for hosting us. 🚀

Earlier today, the Games London Accelerator cohort showcased their pitches at our Demo Day in Brighton. Throughout the morning, the seven studios presented their games to a full room of publishers and investors. We wish to extend a special thanks to our Accelerator partner, Alliotts LLP, for supporting the delivery of the programme. Additionally, we express our gratitude to our two Anchor Mentors, Mark Washbrook and Claire E A B., for their unwavering support of the cohort, ensuring they were pitch-ready and well-prepared for today. Well done to the cohort! 🎉

🕹 Very happy to share a second general update on the Games London Accelerator! Since my last post on the programme, we have: 🔸 Had an insightful session with Andrew Douthwaite from Alliotts LLP (our partner for the Accelerator), covering financial foundations when running an indie studio. 🔸 Went to visit PRELOADED, hosted by Phil Stuart, who gave us a wonderful account of the studio and its current projects. 🔸 Heard from John Lau what good production work is about, when developing your game 🔸 Hosted two pitching practice sessions in our own offices, supported by the programme mentors Mark Washbrook and Claire E A B. 🔸 Learned from Thomas Reisenegger at Future Friends Games how to create engaging trailers and social media content for indie games, looking at lots of case studies and receiving feedback on our cohort’s own visual assets 🔸 Enjoyed a truly inspiring visit at Sports Interactive (SI), where we heard from Studio Director Miles Jacobson and COO Matt Carroll. 🔸 Talked to Glenn Gregory from ID@Xbox/Microsoft, to know more about marketing strategies for indie games and the Xbox ecosystem. 🔸 Chatted with Simon Carless from GameDiscoverCo, who delivered an incredibly interesting session on game hook and discoverability in today’s market. 🔸 Delved into mobile games publishing strategies with Zaair Hussain from Miniclip. 🔸 Visited CCP Games, welcomed by CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson and COO Adrian Blunt (pictured), who shared with us the history of the studio and their views on the current games industry. After these very intensive weeks, the studio cohort is now getting ready for an exciting Demo Day tomorrow in Brighton. So, wish them luck!

Today we are sharing our final 2024 report on London Games Festival, summarising the scope and impact of our activity earlier in the year. Highlights include: 🎟 100,000+ in-person attendees to LGF events 💷 £30m+ business pipeline for participants 🎮 300+ games represented or playable through 🕹 Hundreds of thousands of games sold during the festival Huge thanks to our attendees, funders and partners for helping make this year's LGF such a lively and important event - the biggest London Games Festival yet. We’re already busy working on plans for 2025. LGF returns Tuesday 2 April 2025 and runs until Sunday 13 April 2025. Pop it in your diary! Or reach out if you want to find out about getting involved as a partner. Read the full report below or in the document viewer of your choice here:  https://lnkd.in/eiQeKV2k

Earlier this week the Games London Accelerator programme cohort had the final stop on its series of studios visits: this time visiting CCP Games. Our thanks to CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson and COO Adrian Blunt for a wonderful discussion with our studio cohort. It was great to learn about the history of CCP Games and how the studio navigates through the ups and down of the industry. Thank you also to the CCP team including George Kelion and Alex Holt-Kulapalan for coordinating the visit.

Calling all game studios. Hiro Capital's Dark Star returns on July 24th. Aimed at game studio founders who are thinking about raising money. The event brings together experienced investors, industry experts, and successful game studio founders to share their knowledge and insights on the fundraising process. Discover how: To position your studio for a successful fundraising Investors will view you and your studio Current market conditions are impacting the fundraising landscape Ian Livingstone and the Hiro Capital team will be joined by: Jan Joeckel, co-founder and CEO of Keen Games to talk about the leap from working with games publishers to becoming self published and launching Enshrouded Andy Gore, co-founder and CEO of Soccerverse to talk about raising £2.5m from Square Enix and Hiro Capital, his expectations and reality Brian Johnson, co-founder of Loric Games to talk about his experience launching his studio with VC funding and the difference between pitching publishers and investors Register at https://hiro.capital/

We’re excited to announce a brand new Film London Lab, The IP Sessions, taking place 8 – 12 July! The modern media landscape offers countless ways to tell stories and engage audiences. For ambitious creators, bypassing traditional commissioning to share fresh, resonant content has proven rewarding. Filmmakers should be ready to harness these opportunities across various platforms, from podcasts and TikToks to serialized fiction and YouTube. This lab is geared towards creatives seeking new ways to showcase their work, building an audience early on and creating content that resonates across diverse platforms. Additionally, we’ll dive into the fundamentals of Intellectual Property, exploring how to adapt existing material for the screen and attract collaborators and investors. Guest speakers included; Charles Kerr, Strategic Partner Manager, YouTube UK Julia McKenzie, Comedy and Entertainment Commissioner BBC Radio 4 More speakers to be announced in the coming weeks. Join us to learn more about establishing adaptable IP and navigate the evolving creator economy to elevate your filmmaking journey. https://lnkd.in/eusQZqRm

The 2024 Games London Accelerator cohort had the privilege of visiting the Football Manager Studio, Sports Interactive (SI). During their visit, the cohort received a captivating tour that delved into the studio's impressive 30-year history. They learned about the various highs and lows in the development of the Football Manager series and gained a deeper understanding of how the company's culture creates an inviting and supportive workplace for its 250+ employees. Thank you to Studio Director Miles Jacobson and COO Matt Carroll from the Sports Interactive team for hosting such a wonderful and insightful morning.

Many thanks to PRELOADED for hosting a visit from our 2024 Games London Accelerator cohort!

🕹 The Games London Accelerator pushes ahead, as we had some very interesting sessions over the past few weeks! 🔸 Deep dive on the Video Games Expenditure Credit (VGEC), with Anna Mansi and Stuart Isaac Burnside. 🔸 Market and competitor analysis, by Cassia Curran. Understanding where a game sits relative to its competitors early on in the process is key. 🔸 Very useful legal guidance by Robert Fenner. 🔸 An incredibly insightful workshop by Graham McAllister on learning how to articulate game vision and player experience.  🔸 Publishing strategies by Simon Smith, on when it makes sense to team up with a publisher and when self-publishing might be a better solution. 🔸 A nice trip to Guildford to visit JUMPSHIP/Thunderful Group, meeting Anna Ottewell, Alessandro Bovenzi and accelerator's mentor Claire E A B. to discuss best approaches when working with publishers (pictured). 🔸 A great session yesterday by K. A. Pedersen, covering everything from initial game idea all the way to weighing potential publishing offers, including making sure that you pitch the right games to the right publishers. As you can imagine the programme is pretty intense, so well done to the cohort for dedicating their time and effort to the accelerator while working on their game at the same time. And a massive thanks to the speakers involved and the games companies welcoming us for a visit, it goes a long way to show how supportive the London/UK games ecosystem is.