UK indies to receive £510,000 in lottery funding

The BFI National Lottery Innovation Challenge has announced it will provide £510,000 to four innovative projects in the UK games industry.

The funding aims to support independent games businesses in creating open data sets for use in the industry as well as new tools, technology, and approaches to help underrepresented developers.

The first four projects to be supported are:

• The Games Insight Database (Into Games CIC)
• UK Video Games Econometrics (UKIE and Open Knowledge across Research and Entertainment)
• Business development accelerator Aurora (Code Coven)
• Access to Market: Self Publishing Toolkit (Film London)

The Games Insights Database is a partnership between Into Games, Games Jobs Live, and learning designers/researchers Birds Eye View. Its database aims to support independent studios and developers by providing access to information about workforce, skills, salary benchmarking and funding availability.

UKIE and OKRE’s UK Video Games Econometrics will provide insights into the economic, social, and cultural value of the UK games sector and collate the data “to articulate its value.”

Code Coven’s Aurora aims to build the skills and knowledge of underrepresented developers in business knowledge and financing. It will also support forming connections between developers, publishers, and investors.

The Access to Market: Self-Publishing Toolkit is led by Games London as a branch of Film London. The two-year project will feature a group of up to 12 independent games companies that will be provided with business development workshops, the insights of which will be collated into a toolkit.

“We’re thrilled to be backing these four projects, which propose innovative approaches to a range of challenges facing the UK’s video games industry,” said BFI director of research and industry innovation Rishi Coupland.

“Together, these projects promise to deliver further creative and commercial success for the video games industry, through a focus on data, insights, market access, and diversity.”