Five local game dev teams in the running for Creative Europe MEDIA grant with support from SGA
At the end of last year, in collaboration with a team of business developers and fundraising experts, The Other Guy, SGA had the opportunity to support its members for the first time in applying for one of the most important funds for Serbian developers – Creative Europe MEDIA.
Alkonost Team, PackDev Interactive, Tricoman Studios, Marble IT and Pixels2Pixels were selected to receive free expert help in writing their application for this call, so we hope that they will join Entropic Island, the team that previously received this grant (read the interview).
And here are some of the projects that were supported.
Godforged: Origins of Ozgalor
Tricoman Studios
Godforged is a narrative and action RPG set in an original high fantasy world inspired by Balkan and Byzantine mythology. The game places the player at the center of political conflicts, ancient magic and wars, where every decision changes the course of the story, the relationships between factions and the development of the world. Combining real-time combat with deep role-playing systems and reactive storytelling, Godforged brings a fresh approach to the genre and builds the foundation for a long-term, scalable IP.
Tricoman Studios is no stranger to this call, and this is what Borislav Vesnić, CEO, Business Director and Co-founder of the studio, says about the new application experience:
“The prism of the European Union, and the perspective of considering their needs to clearly define things such as localization, accessibility of the project to the widest possible audience that the genre encompasses, issues of ecology, diversity and the like, lead indie studios to really think about what kind of company they are building and on what foundations. Last year, we also applied to the call and had a passing score (81), but the competition was quite strong, so we did not receive funding even though we exceeded the limit. This year, with a significantly improved application thanks to the mentoring and technical support we received, we hope for a positive result.”
Echoes of Europe
Pixels2Pixels
Echoes of Europe is a narrative-driven XR exploration game for PC VR, where the player embodies a genderless, non-human archivist exploring an abandoned European Cultural Archive Vessel drifting in space. Meaning is revealed gradually through first-person interaction, observation, movement and the connection of fragments into a whole. European cultures are presented as interactive “cultural threads” inspired by music, architecture, ornamentation and writing systems, which can be discovered, combined and transformed.
Đorđe Đorđić, Founder of Pixels2Pixels Studio, comments on the experience of applying to Creative Europe MEDIA as follows:
“This support helped us shape the initial game idea into a project that is truly tailored to calls of this type. From harmonizing the language and structure of the application, to precisely defining the prototype, goals and expected results in order to deliver the application in a quality manner. As a technical and creative team, we often naturally focus more on the creative part, so this type of support was especially valuable to us, because it helped us to clearly and convincingly present the business and development aspects, which I believe is crucial for programs like this.”
Hermes
Marble IT
Hermes is a narrative adventure that adapts the story of the Iliad in an innovative way. The player takes on the role of Hermes, and their mission is to convey messages between the main actors of the war – Greece, Troy and the Greek gods, who pull the strings from the shadows. Hermes (the player) finds himself in a unique position, holding key information, and learns that by deciding who gets what information, he can greatly influence the outcome of the events described by Homer. Through their “postal” activities, players have the opportunity to explore the significance of information, historically accurate events and how a single piece of information has the power to change the course of history.
Luka Ćurčić, CEO and Co-founder of Marbel IT, says the following about the collaboration with The Other Guy:
“I can commend the fact that they understood the project very well and were extremely up-to-date at every step. It was clear that they knew what they were doing when it came to large bureaucratic applications for grants. From the beginning, we had good cohesion, clearly planned the application as a project, divided responsibilities and always knew what the next step was. Any question, doubt, or small change in the plan was communicated extremely quickly, which altogether influenced us to be fast, accurate, high-quality and to complete everything on time, without stress.”