Today it became known about the launch of an accelerator in Kaliningrad for game developers based in Russia. It’s called PlayPort and is aimed at novice gaming teams. Money is not promised to all participants, only training and expertise.
To be more specific, the accelerator provides:
- educational program;
- mentoring;
- mentoring;
- master classes;
- consultations from representatives of the gaming industry.
There is no question yet that the accelerator will be permanent. However, there are plans to “create a new space for communication between young teams and investor companies.”
The duration of the first stream will be three months. Then the participants will have to take part in an investment pitching. It’s just unclear to whom exactly the developers will present their projects.
You can become a member of PlayPort exclusively on a competitive basis. Among the main criteria are the following:
- there should be from 2 to 5 people in the studio;
- the studio should be relatively young (less than 5 years on the market);
- at least 50% of the team members must have at least 2 years of commercial development experience;
- a team in production should have at least one game at the stage of finalizing an idea or creating an MVP;
- the team must be ready for an intensive program within 3 months;
- as a result of the accelerator, the team must participate in pitching to investors.
Important: to participate in the accelerator, the team does not need to be in Kaliningrad. The program is federal in nature.
The accelerator was organized by the Krespectiva Foundation (established with the support of the Government of the Kaliningrad Region), as well as the teaching structures Universal University and Scream School.
Their task is to “Increase the volume of game content produced in the region, the emergence of new development teams, increase the number of qualified specialists and attract targeted investments to the region.”
There are no permanent game accelerators in Russia as entities that help their participants in bringing projects to the market on a regular basis. However, we have accelerators as events from time to time.
For example, last August, the investment division of MY.GAMES and Google launched a short-term business accelerator Game Drive 2021 for mobile developers. The companies promised to bring the best gaming projects to foreign markets. The event fund was supposed to be $30 million.