Three programs, one mission: SGA receives support from Creative Europe

Our community is already familiar with FTW! Now, it is taking on a new scope, gaining new partners, and embracing a new ambition. Playing Narratives Europe and Playing Narratives+ have evolved from our good old Playing Narratives program. You should only change things if they aren’t working well. If they are, you should strive to improve them and expand upon what is already good within your community.

They share one thing in common: we are no longer building just a Serbian game dev scene. We are building a scene for Southeast Europe—a place where developers from Belgrade, Sarajevo, Skopje, Podgorica, Zagreb, Warsaw, Bratislava, Sofia, or Bucharest have an equal chance for their games to reach the global stage.

For we, too, are the world. Once again.

FTW! – from a conference to the regional market

For years, For The Win! has been a place where the industry gathers, learns and connects. With the support of Creative Europe, FTW! is evolving into something the region has long lacked: a true game dev market—a place where people don’t just talk about the industry, but actually conduct business within it.

We are exploring the regional scene. Each year, in collaboration with our partners, we will conduct research on the video game industry in Serbia, the broader Central and Eastern Europe region and the Western Balkans. We want to know how many studios exist, what they are creating, the challenges they face and where the greatest opportunities lie. We will share the results publicly with the community, because we make better decisions when we have the right data.

We are opening our doors to studios from across the region. Through open calls and transparent criteria, we will select studios and projects to be presented to publishers and investors. These calls are not limited to local teams, they are open to developers throughout Southeast Europe.

We prepare teams before they present to publishers. Prior to entering the market, selected studios undergo a publishing readiness bootcamp. During this process, they work on their publishing decks, game positioning and pitch preparation, ensuring they arrive at meetings well-prepared and confident in their project.

We facilitate connections before, during and after the event. We are enhancing the Shift2Games platform by adding digital matchmaking features, including studio profiles, meeting requests and material sharing. An online matchmaking week, held prior to the market itself, allows key conversations to begin early and ensures that connections are maintained even after the event concludes.

FTW! Market in Belgrade. The highlight of the year is a multi-day market featuring curated pitch sessions, B2B meetings, an expo zone and roundtables. It is a space where regional studios meet directly with publishers, investors and partners from across Europe.

And we do so responsibly. We are developing FTW! as a sustainable event. We analyze the impact of previous editions—covering mobility, energy, materials, catering and waste—and implement practices that reduce this impact year after year.

Playing Narratives Europe – stories from the region, for all of Europe

Playing Narratives began in 2021 as a creative bootcamp launched by the French Institute and the Goethe-Institut, in collaboration with the SGA. It was designed for individuals with an idea and a desire to tell stories through games. The very first cycle attracted 200 applications, while the second brought together participants from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Romania. Since then, dozens of creatives have gone through the program; some are now working in studios, while others have founded their own.

Playing Narratives Europe takes that story across borders. The program brings together writers, designers, artists and developers from across the region, connects them into international teams and helps them develop original game concepts inspired by local stories, history and culture. We believe that Southeast Europe holds stories the world has yet to hear, and that games are one of the most powerful ways to tell them.

We will be in touch soon with more details, and over the coming months, we will introduce you more thoroughly to our partners and activities. Applications will open in early February.

Playing Narratives+ – from concept to a playable build

The concept is just the beginning. The biggest gap for young teams is the journey from a good idea to something a publisher can play. Playing Narratives+ exists precisely to bridge that gap.

This is a free, seven-month incubator designed for teams of two to five people who already have a game concept. Through 12 workshops, teams cover everything they need to bring their game to market: market research, production, business models, working with publishers and investors, marketing, Steam page setup, playtesting and pitching.

Each team is assigned a personal mentor from the industry, with whom they meet at least twice a month. The mentors come from studios such as tinyBuild Serbia, Saber Serbia, Flat Hill Games and Supergiant Games. By the end of the program, the teams have a playable demo, a press kit and a pitch deck.

Support does not end with the final workshop. Alumni receive a one-year free SGA START membership, tickets to gamescom 2027 and assistance with applications for Creative Europe calls. In this way, the cycle comes full circle: our programs prepare the next generation of studios to become beneficiaries of European funding themselves.

Although this program is not directly supported by Creative Europe, but rather by our partners (tinyBuild, ARC, Epic Games, and Nordeus), Playing Narratives+ will serve as an additional resource for team development and networking.

Why this is important

Together, these three programs form a path for developers. On this journey, a creator progresses from an initial idea to an original concept (Playing Narratives Europe), from a concept to a playable version (Playing Narratives+) and from a playable version to publishers and the market (FTW!).

For us, this is proof that the story we have been building for years makes sense, and for the region, it shows that games created here can stand shoulder to shoulder with the best European projects. The support from Creative Europe is not merely financial – it is also a confirmation that Southeast Europe deserves a place on the European game development map.

Thank you to all the partners, mentors, studios and participants who have been part of this story from the beginning. This is not the end of a chapter. This is a level up.