Games Founding Grant celebrates coaching and networking launch in Berlin

• Kick-off event at Silent Green Kulturquartier brings grant holders together to get to know each other and exchange ideas with coaches.
• With lectures and workshops on corporate vision, IP and brand building, awareness and diversity.
• Press Start: Games Founding Grant for Games supports 132 game developers from Germany in setting up studios and implementing game ideas.

Berlin, 10 February 2025: The ‘Press Start: Games Founding Grant’ celebrated its launch in Berlin on 9 February together with the funded game developers. Most of the 132 grant recipients travelled from all over Germany to attend the event at the Silent Green Kulturquartier. The grants were awarded in December 2024 by a jury of experts, with well over 1,000 people applying in total. In addition to getting to know each other, the kick-off event featured initial specialist lectures and workshops by industry experts as well as opportunities to exchange ideas with the ‘Press Start’ team. The event was hosted by the programme partners Stiftung Digitale Spielekultur (Digital Game Culture Foundation) and game – Verband der deutschen Games-Branche (German Games Industry Association). The ‘Press Start’ programme is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.

After a welcome by Nandita Wegehaupt, Managing Director of the Digital Game Culture Foundation, and Felix Falk, Managing Director of game – the German Games Industry Association, grant holders then got to know their coaches, with whom they subsequently conducted group workshops on corporate vision. The coaches present were Jens Bahr (Off The Beaten Track), Laura Kaltenmaier (KI-Garage), Ulrike Küchler (Gamebook Studio), Thomas Lilge (gamelab.berlin), Timo Maier (Serious Playscape) and Masiar Emanuel Nashat (Nashat Solutions). Orientation activities led by members of the Press Start team, networking formats and a performance by video artist Jemma Woolmore completed the programme. The evening before, a get-together was held at the Computerspielemuseum in Berlin.

“Thanks to funding from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, 132 people are now a decisive step closer to establishing their own game studios. This benefits not only them, but also the cultural appeal of games in Germany,‘ said foundation director Nandita Wegehaupt, commenting on the launch of the ’Press Start” programme. “Last weekend’s event laid the foundation for our education and networking programme, through which we will support the scholarship holders in turning their creative ideas into lasting successes.”

“The kick-off event for the Games Start-up Grant not only marks the start of this unique programme, it is also something very special because of the atmosphere: over a hundred people who want to make a difference are coming together here. They are united by the goal of setting up their own games companies and gradually growing them; they want to create fantastic games and creative innovations. This programme once again highlights the enormous creative and entrepreneurial potential that Germany has to offer when we look at the games industry,” says game Managing Director Felix Falk.