Prototype Funding
Gamecity Hamburg is the contact for prototype funding in Hamburg – from the first consultation appointment to the transfer of the grant.
A total of 400,000 euros per year can be granted. The application phase for the next funding round starts March 3 and ends April 7, 2025.
The funding supports developers and game studios (natural and legal persons) to create a prototype for digital games. The non-repayable funds will be granted with a maximum of 80,000 euros and a maximum of 80 percent of the eligible costs.
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Apply now
Where can I find the online application form for prototype funding? What information and templates do I need for the application? You can find all information regarding the application process on our "Apply now" page.
Timeline
March 3 - April 7
Application Phase
The application phase will run from March 3 until April 7, 2025. You find all information for the application here. A consultation appointment is mandatory and recommended at least two weeks before the submission date to prepare applicants in the best possible way. Find information about how to schedule a consultation appointment and what to prepare here.
April 7 at 11:59 pm
Submission Deadline
Only applications that are complete (online application form + documents to be submitted in original) by April 7 at 11:59 pm. will be considered for the award. All applicants are advised to submit their documents at the latest one week before the deadline to allow for corrections.
April 28
Awarding Meeting
The awarding committee decides which applicants are invited to pitch.
May 5
Pitch
During ten-minute pitches, applicants present their projects to the awarding committee with a pitch deck and the committee has the opportunity for questions.
All funded Projects
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Garden Ink
by Tales from the Garden
In “Garden Ink” you slip into the role of a deity who fills a deserted planet with life. You control a group of cute leaf creatures that must be protected from evil spirits by planting various plants. If you manage to create a beautiful garden and soothe all the spirits, you can move on to the next planet.
Pubcrawler
by Triflgard
Pubcrawler is a co-op PC game for up to four player in which you and your friends navigate your wandering pub through a wasteland. In the process, you have to complete a variety of challenging tasks that can only be mastered as a team. So, work together and enjoy the adventure.
Light of Atlantis
by Duck 'n' Run Games
Funded with 70,000 €
Explore the depths of the ocean in this 2D-Puzzle-Metroidvania! Control the water levels and switch between various robots to solve the ancient puzzles of Atlantis.
Frisia - Cozy Villages
by Rouven Cabanis
In Frisia – Cozy Villages you start on an uninhabited Northsea island and are tasked with building a functional, yet cozy and beautiful little town. Inspired by the frisian architecture of the Dutch and German Northsea coast, Frisia aims to create a cozy gameplay experience in harmony with simple town-building and strategy game mechanics.
ForeFeathers
by Team Honeybeak
"ForeFeathers" is a 3D Puzzle-Platformer where you explore the sky-high ruins of an ancient civilization of birds! Traverse the flying islands with the powers of flight, solve tricky puzzles and keep your friends from getting in trouble!
Chaos Royale
by Monodot
Funded with 80,000 €
Chaos Royale is a strategic PvP multiplayer game where you take on hordes of monsters while using your wits to disrupt and take out other players – competing to be the last person standing
Map Map - A Game about Maps
by Pipapo Games
Funded with 80,000 €
'Map Map - A Game about Maps' is a cozy exploration game with a unique cartography mechanic in which you explore wondrous landscapes to find a legendary lost treasure.
Dottobeau
by Dottobeau
„Dottobeau“ is a cozy point & click adventure that allows you to control the atmosphere of the game world. Switch through different moods of music and colors to influence the emotions of the world inhabitants, solve a series of puzzles and create your own little adventure.
Journey Beyond The Edge of the World
by Markus Koepke
An atmospheric first person adventure game in which the player solves puzzles to unfold a mysterious and surreal story. A story told in a unique way through 5 narrated music tracks.
We The Valarii
by Bagpack Games
We The Valarii is a couch co-op racing adventure for up to 4 players! Race WITH each other and accompany the sprouts of Mithem on their spinning pilgrimage using a unique input mechanic to speed up!
Replicore (working title METACORE)
by Amberdive Interactive
Funded with 80,000 €
Replicore is an Ancient Sci-Fi Co-op Shooter where you throw your crew into the action with the Core or pull them out of tricky situations to withstand the challenges of the mysterious ruins.
Stack 'Em Up
by Godcomplex Games
Funded with 70,000 €
Absorb and combine Slimes into unique abilities and stun and "stack" your opponents in this fast-paced and crazy on- and offline Multiplayer Party Game for up to 4 players.
About Cannons + Sparrows
by About Cannons + Sparrows
About Cannons + Sparrows is a side scrolling, physics based puzzle platformer with story driven genre twists.
Babsi Bullet
by Team Marty
Part teenager, part bullet: our eponymous heroine Babsi Bullet is a living missile. The 12-year-old fights otherworldly creatures on a flying alien planet that is menacingly approaching Earth.
Evergreen Garden
by Elin Meinecke
Evergreen Garden is a farm simulation role-playing game in which the player must consider the interaction of plants with each other and with the environment in order to achieve optimal yields. To restore the abandoned farm to its former glory, herbs and flowers must be skillfully used alongside lush crops to grow a healthy, varied and productive garden.
Misgiven
by Symmetry Break Studio
Funded with 70,000 €
Misgiven is a 2D sci-fi narrative adventure game about that lump in your throat, and how some things are harder to say than others. As an explorer, you are stranded in a city veiled in toxic fog, whose inhabitants wear masks to survive. Find people you can trust in this alien place, and experience the awkwardness, anxiety and rewards of communication.
Monstersongs VR
by Denise Koch
Funded with 28,000 €
Explore an abandoned theatre that has been taken over by monsters who are hungry for love. Escape the monster lurking within yourself in this part rock musical part adventure game.
Absolute Matter (working title The Invitation)
by tool1
Funded with 60,000 €
Absolute Matter is a PvEvP loot shooter with a clear goal: maximum player interaction.
Quests in this game are not given by NPCs. They emerge from events, players and the environment, which frequently invite you to new adventures. This game was formerly known as the Invitation and received funding with this name.
supernightshift
by consider it
supernightshift is a minimalistic puzzle racer on the nightly streets of Hamburg. Strategically combine the different means of transportation the city has to offer to reach your destination as fast as possible. Watch your travel budget and don't dawdle on your smartphone, or you'll run out of time!
The Treepoids
by SUPERNATURAL GAMES
“The Treepoids and the Island of Professor Flora” starts the adventure series of the Treepoids a plantlike alien race that travels the universe to explore distant planets. Now they need your help! Use your wits and their mental superpowers to solve puzzles, master mind battles and stop the Professor from his evil plans.
Alchymia
by Pseudoscience Interactive
Funded with 70,000 €
Alchymia is a building and management rogue-like about the art of alchemy. Build complex apparatuses, study the effects of strange ingredients, create powerful potions and save your city from an approaching horde of undead!
Crumbling
by Team Crumbling
Funded with 39,782 €
Crumbling is a virtual-reality game where you wield an action figure in your hand against plastic toy monsters in meticulously hand-crafted dioramas.
Leif's Adventure: Netherworld Hero
by OneManOnMars Art & Games
A 2D action-adventure game with a unique 2 character system and a fantastic co-op mode for consoles and the PC. A demo is available on Steam.
Jonah Weingarten’s Ninja Brigade
by Impawsible Games
A fast-paced pixel art metroidvania, where the musician Jonah Weingarten is drawn to feudal Japan via an arcade station. Once there, he must face vicious yokai hordes and beat the game to return to his own era. Ninja Brigade is available on Steam!
The Amusement
by Curvature Games
The Amusement is a narrative VR adventure that uses real walking to let you explore and discover the history of an abandoned amusement park in the 1920s.
Melodies (Working Title)
by Behind the Stone
Funded with 60,000 €
On the edge of the fair stands the organ grinder, a ghastly figure whom no one dares to approach—no one except a single girl, who is drawn to the macabre melodies. The dark short stories that the bizarre minstrel shares with his rare audience form the core of Project "Melodies," the 2D horror anthology where players step into the roles of its unfortunate protagonists.
The Regreening
by Positive Impact Games
Funded with 80,000 €
The Regreening is a cozy nature restoration simulation game inspired by real world projects. As the last human on the planet, plant seeds to restore biomes, mend friendships with folklore animals, and bring back life to the Earth. The game is a twist on the classic cozy farming simulation game that puts the player in a position of having a positive rather than exploitative role in their environment.
A Most Honorable Bunch
by Osmotic Studios
Funded with 72,000 €
A Most Honorable Bunch is a narrative heist game that captures the spirit of gangster films such as “Reservoir Dogs” or “The Usual Suspects” in game form. The game tells a story about five more or less dubious characters who meet - seemingly by chance - on a long-abandoned island. Only they themselves know the reason that drove them here. But none of them can shake off the feeling that the others are also looking for something from the past of this “lost place” - and will go to any lengths to find it.
How to Find Friends
by Beardshaker Games
Funded with 30,000 €
How To Find Friends is a cozy game that lets you take your time and relax.
Reddie - ReRun of Reality
by Curvature Games
Funded with 80,000 €
"Reddie - ReRun of Reality" is a mixed-reality puzzle game where the player takes on the role of a test subject in a series of eperiments, using the unique abilities of the Reddie characters to shift between different dimensions and realities.
Dein Skat
by Bestjack Entertainment
Funded with 70,000 €
In the mood for Skat, but all alone? Not a problem. With "My Skat" the classic card game will become available as a captivating single-player-game
Super Party Verse
by Super Crowd Entertainment
Funded with 80,000 €
Super Party Verse is a Hybrid Gaming Event App. Use your personal avatar to play multiplayer party games, visit hybrid entertainment events or create your own digital events!
Into the Emberlands (working title Wanderful/HEXAGONE)
by Tiny Roar
Funded with 80,000 €
Into the Emberlands is a Wholesome-Strategy-Game with a narrative touch, set in a colorful multidimensional setting. Place tiles to create a world piece by piece and send explorers on quests for loot and new pieces - while building up your highscore on the search for the ultimate adventure. Formerly first known as HEXAGONE and then Wanderful, the game got a new title in May 2024 and is set to release in Early Access in the Summer of 2024.
CR4NKUP
by CR4NKUP
Funded with 40,000 €
CR4NKUP combines gaming and sport in one world! Through the gamification of indoor bike training and innovative smart trainers, CR4NKUP brings indoor training to a new level and creates a virtual world in which thousands of players worldwide can ride with and against each other at the same time.
Mambio
by neurodactics
Funded with 39,273 €
Mambio can be used independently by elementary school children with and without disabilities. The learning software combines classic learning methods and new developments from research to provide children with mathematics lessons specifically designed for them.
ARC Break
by SpiceVR
Funded with 50,000 €
In the VR Game ARC BREAK, an Arcade Game comes to life and breaks free from its digital borders, threatening to conquer the world. The player is earth's last chance to save us all.
Fantasma Ville
by Torito Games
Funded with 19,140 €
Fantasma Ville is a puzzle-platformer game about guilt and redemption, where the player controls a memoryless ghost tasked to uncover why the village inhabitants and himself died.
Rocket Science GONE WRONG
by Soapbox Interactive
Funded with 48,000 €
Rocket Science GONE WRONG is a competitive first person shooter with a 100% destructible world.
The Hunt for Epic Treasure
by Elecular
Funded with 35,200 €
The Hunt For Epic Treasures is set during the medieval Viking ages in northern Europe. This game is a mix of Action Role-playing Game (ARPG) and strategy where you fight your way to become the leader of your tribe, and eventually start developing your small Viking village into a grand settlement.
Lost Sector
by Invariant Games
Funded with 73,270 €
Explore the threatening sci-fi world of Lost Sector and master the souls-like combat. Defy overwhelming odds to overcome evolving creatures and gradually changing environments in this unforgiving third-person action-roguelike.
PROJECT MORPH
by THREAKS
Funded with 70,000 €
TRANSFORM INTO THE MONSTERS YOU KILL!
Utilize enemy DNA to transform yourself into various alien creatures and save the galaxy from the apocalypse in this souls-like sci-fi action-RPG.
Soulitaire
by Beardshaker
Funded with 48,000 €
The prototype of "Soulitaire" will give a first polished impression of the planned solitaire gameplay and dark fantasy setting.
Stadtkinder
by Studio Monstrum
Funded with 48,000 €
In the VR game "Stadtkinder" the player accompanies a group of youths on their expedition through a seemingly deserted Metropolis in search of a lost friend. These challenges have to be tackled by employing a mechanic called "multithreading" which enables the players to cooperate with their own avatars from the past.
Turbo Shell
by Radioactive Dreams
Funded with 31,273 €
Turbo Shell is a fast-paced 2D platformer with a unique movement mechanic: instead of running and jumping, you push and pull yourself through a sci-fi world with the help of a special tool. The release of the final game is scheduled for 2022. A free demo including all levels of the first world in Turbo Shell is available on Steam.
Wild Woods
by Octofox Games
Funded with 80,000 €
Wild Woods is a couch coop action game with roguelike elements. One to four players take on the roles of brave little cats defending their wooden wagon on its way through a dangerous forest.
Out of Place
by Bagpack Games
Funded with 80,000 €
Prove yourself in the mysterious world of Mithem! Defeat your enemies using your companion while also protecting him courageous during frightening segments. Help Simon to find a way back home and restore a war-scarred world in a tale of friendship, hope and courage.
FAQ
What can be funded?
↓The purpose of funding is to develop marketable prototypes of digital games. For the purposes of these guidelines, digital games are interactive electronic works, i.e. software that is based on a game idea, game rules and game objectives, responds to user input, generates moving image content, serves educational or entertainment purposes, and is intended for publication, in particular, computer and video games (Games). Not eligible for funding are digital games that violate the constitution or applicable law and contain content that glorifies violence, incites hatred, pornography or racism.
Who can be funded?
↓Developers and developer communities (natural and legal persons), as well as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are already resident in Hamburg or can prove that they will relocate their headquarters to Hamburg or open a branch or business premises in Hamburg upon receipt of funding, are eligible to apply. The prerequisite for payment of the first instalment is the actual existence of a business premises in Hamburg. For the purposes of these guidelines, an SME is defined as an enterprise which, at the time of application, employs fewer than 250 persons and whose turnover in the preceding year did not exceed 50 million euros. Also, the applying company must not be owned as to 25 percent or more of the capital or the voting rights by one or more enterprises that do not meet the definition of an SME.
How much funding can I receive per project?
↓The grant may amount to up to 80 percent of the estimated project costs but not more than 80,000 euros per project.
What do I have to consider in order to apply for funding?
↓- The applicant specifies in the application, in which state of development the project is. Generally, projects can be submitted as long as there is only a pitch deck and a description of the project, if they are still in the concept phase or if there is a first playable demo.
- Projects for which prototype development has already begun are not eligible.
- Prior experience in game development is an indispensable prerequisite for developing a prototype with market opportunities.
- The precondition is always that the applicant is already based in Hamburg or can prove that they will relocate their residence to Hamburg or open a subsidiary or branch establishment in Hamburg upon being granted funding.
- A competition analysis and exploitation strategy are required in order to assess the market potential.
- The awarding of funding is based on various criteria such as the promotion of young talent, the team, market potential, and location effect, to which the applicant should refer in his application.
What should I prepare for the consultation appointment?
↓A consultation appointment with Gamecity Hamburg is mandatory before application. Before making an appointment, it is essential that the applicant has carefully read the guidelines for funding prototypes, the FAQ, and the application form (https://gamecity-hamburg.de/funding/application). The following information from the applicant is also required when making an appointment by e-mail to funding@gamecity-hamburg.de:
- Short project outline (max. half a page of text or a slide)
- Aimed funding amount for the project / planned proof of personal contribution
- Concrete questions regarding the application / funding of the project
What is the Diversity Checklist?
↓The Diversity Checklist is part of the application process since the first funding round in 2024. In this checklist, information is provided on how diverse the team is and to what extent the project includes diverse topics and characters.Our aim is to encourage applicants to critically question their own structures and habits in relation to the project. Applicants whose team and/or project contribute to the diversity of Hamburg's games landscape can receive a bonus in the evaluation by the awarding committee. On the contrary, applicants are not disadvantaged in the evaluation process if that is not the case for their team and/or project. Find the Checklist in Downloads.
When does the next funding round start?
↓The first application phase for funding will run from March 3 to April 7, 2025. In principle, two rounds of funding per year are planned with the total amount of 400,000 euros available per year. The number and quality of the applications submitted in the first funding round of each year will determine whether there will subsequently be a sufficient budget available for another funding round. If this is not the case, the next funding round will take place regularly from March of the following year. If funds are still available after the first funding round, a second application phase will take place around the time of September to October 2025.