Do you develop games for fun, or because you would like to become a fulltime professional? Or better yet: for both reasons?

The games industry is a complex field of work, that has grown into the largest entertainment industry in the world in just 50 years. It is larger than the movie and music industry combined. Due to considerable revenue streams – more than 150 billion euros per year – a tension exists between creating total art (gesamtkunstwerk) with a diverse and inclusive team, or more easily consumable games as a service (GaaS) with a data-oriented team. There are even games being launched today without the involvement of game designers (but with data scientists at the helm).

How do we deal with the increasing problems surrounding gambling mechanisms in mobile or free-to-play games? What makes this market and Games as a Service grow so much? And can you both serve the market with a game as an art form and provide your employees with long-term work? Your first game is likely to become your first company after it is published, similar to how it works in the movie industry. How do you maintain that venture after publishing and continue to produce and monetize existing games? Read more about our ethical code of conduct, how we work and who we support.

Contents of the Indietopia Accelerator

In our 6-month accelerator program you work on the balance between audio, video and interaction for your game. Planning marketing far ahead of publishing is also an important topic. Who is your target audience, what is the competition doing and how big is the market you are entering? Do you focus on standard player types from the Bartle model (socializers, killers, achievers and explorers) or do you tap into a completely new target group? Each game genre has monetization methods to suit that type of game and its players. However, sometimes you can serve the market with new revenue models. Think of product placement in the game world, or working with a subscription model if you offer a lot of updates or new content.

The games industry is the epitome of an industry where anything is possible, and constant pioneering is part of it. Of course, there are guidelines and success stories that reduce risk – this is a high risk, high reward industry – and these stories are widely featured in the accelerator. An important part is working on the adaptive capacity of entrepreneurs in this sector. Earning models change quickly and new developments and legislation require rapid adjustment.

Produce, Publish, Polish

Challenges form the foundation of the Accelerator program. You will learn about the aforementioned topics, and use the acquired knowledge to work on one of the challenges that we designed for the program. Read on to find out which challenge suits you best.

Focussing on the three P’s: Produce, Publish, Polish, you will have all the tools at your disposal to succesfully work on a challenge in the Indietopia Accelerator:

• Coaching
• Seminars
• Network meetings
• Game jam
• Demo day
• Support at big game events
• Work / office space
• Free coffee and WiFi

Pick your challenge

Two top performers from our Accelerator pilot year (2018) return to Accelerator Round 2, starting in September 2022. They need your help, which we offer by means of the following two challenges. And then there is a wildcard… Indietopia Publishing covers all costs for the challenges that form the base for our program. Take your pick and we look forward to welcome you in our accelerator program.

Challenge 1: Development

One of our teams from previous accelerator rounds needs your help to finish their game. The team built a card game that is almost ready to go to production. What is missing is some final playtesting and market research. If you are into card games and / or board game design and publishing, give this challenge a go. We will compile the team’s further needs (July 2022), so stay tuned to see if there is a fitting role for you too!

Challenge 2: Publishing

Do you quickly make your way around custom engines? Apply for our publishing challenge for a side-scrolling action-platformer, one of the alumni of Accelerator Round 1. In half a year, the aim is to polish the current levels and look, publish the game on Switch and Steam, iOS and Android Premium. In a custom engine you will also work on asynchronous multiplayer gameplay.

Wildcard

For the wildcard you can choose one of two options:

1. Promote your development team to us and we will offer you work for hire. Your team needs to have at least a business developer and a programmer / artist.
2. Pitch your original game idea to us.

Which of the above challenges suits you best? Send us your motivation, resume and/or portfolio. If you choose the wildcard with your own game idea, please include a short pitch video in which you describe your idea. Get creative!

About Indietopia

Between 2018 and 2021, Indietopia created 36 workplaces for young starters in the games industry, spread over 14 projects. Because many students graduate every year with a specialization in game design, the foundation aims at the following goals: enabling designers to start their business in a safe way and facilitating a stable industry in the North. Indietopia does this based on the idea that almost every professional organization will have to deal with gamification at some point, as an evolution in the process of digitization.

Are you in need of innovation with your (MKB) company? Would you like to stand out in your market? The professional participants of our Accelerator program can make this happen. We can connect a team to you that will work on a challenge that you are facing. Some examples of how serious games can help your business:

• Automate your work processes and make them more fun;
• Train your personnel in a new and motivating way;
• Consumers interacting with your products or services in a virtual environment increases their trust;
• Educate users by playfully showing them your background story;
• Showcase your products or services in a fun virtual environment.

Indietopia’s Accelerator program offers startups professional mentorship, support in monetization strategies, marketing and more. Indietopia organises workshops and talks by established developers and pitching sessions that make it easy to establish contact. If you would like to work with our motivated professionals, reach out to us via hello@indietopia.org.

We would love to see you at Indietopia!

Branded Games 2.0 is more than a game with a logo

We like to walk the extra mile when it comes to creating fun, stimulating experiences. Our motivated teams produce enticing titles that provoke brand awareness and achieve success by putting fun first. The games sign our code of conduct and consequently make games that comprise corporate social responsibility, aiming to build player interest first, then present your brand centrally.

Supports the local economy

The Indietopia Accelerator is all about helping the Northern game industry grow and blossom. By choosing to work with one of the developers within our Accelerator program, you’ll support the local economy.

Contribution to client and society

Companies on the lookout for serious games do not only want a product to fulfill a function or produce data. Games with multiple layers, including deep gameplay, a dollop of fun and good functionality are more likely to impress clients that look for a team at Indietopia. It helps if your game supports Indietopia’s code of conduct and therefore help society in more than one way.

Are you interested to see which projects were part of the first edition of our Indietopia Accelerator? We have combined them in a brochure, that was designed by our talented interns Bram Fokkens and Michiel Stender. It includes descriptions of the games that were in development in our accelerator program, including Fringe Planet, Crimson Resonance and TerraGardens. Our interns also created pieces of art that are inspired by the games. You can download the brochure by hitting the button on the right.