Some have argued that we have more accelerators than you can shake a stick at here in Northern Europe, but one that differentiates itself is Tallinn’s GameFounders accelerator. Rather than the typical accelerator’s general focus, as the name implies GameFounders is one of the few focused on improving the gaming concepts and business skills behind the games, as well as game concepts. The deadline to apply is December 7.
Their first batch is just finishing up at the moment, and is currently on the tail end of four demo days – one in Tallin, at Slush, at Game Connection in Paris, and then in Silicon Valley on December 10th. Out of the 10 teams accepted, six presented at the demo days. A good rundown of the games can be found on Pocketgamer.biz.
“I think we’re going to have a really high score rate because there are some really interesting offers on the table,” says co-founder Kadri Ugand, who explained that investors and publishers have been taking interest in the teams.
Four teams focused on and developed the same game they came to GameFounders with, one had a slightly tweaked concept of the same game out, and one didn’t have anything out – and still doesn’t – but is apparently working on something interesting.
The accelerator offers €5,000 per founder for a 9% share in the company. Ten teams will spend three months together in free office space in Tallinn, and have access to 70+ mentors.
“We have gaming CEOs and people that have grown their business and exited, so they are always talking about the business, but from a gaming angle. And also we have lots of people who are saying how to develop games faster and better, because as you know it’s not always the first game that will be the one that you’ll make it with, so you have to build your portfolio and not be too attached to the first game that you have, and learn from it,” explains Ugand.
The types of gaming startups Gamefounders is looking for hasn’t changed, but by browsing the already submitted applications she finds that the quality is generally higher than last year.
Again, the deadline is December 7th, applications are accepted here.
