Five promising digital games will receive Prototype Funding of up to 80,000 euros per project in the form of a non-repayable grant. A second round of funding will take place in the fall of 2026 

Hamburg, May 19, 2026: Through its Gamecity Hamburg initiative, Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft is supporting five video games developed in Hamburg with Prototype Funding. The funding enables startups in Hamburg and provides studios and developers with the means to create marketable prototypes.   

From a large number of applications, the awarding committee selected projects with the greatest market potential. The application phase for a second funding round in 2026 will begin in September.   

“The awarding committee received many very good and several outstanding applications in this funding round. Congratulations to all the funded games and teams! We are looking forward to offering a second funding round this fall; more details will be announced shortly on Gamecity’s channels,” comments Dennis Schoubye, Head of Gamecity Hamburg.   

The selection of the 2026 funding recipients was made by the awarding committee, consisting of Hamburg-based industry experts Nina Müller (VP of Publishing & Development Services, Goodgame Studios), Jonas Hüsges (COO, Daedalic Entertainment), Valentina Birke (Director of Indie Arena Booth / Super Crowd Entertainment), Karsten Schwaiger (Head of the Media and Digital Economy Department at the City of Hamburg’s Ministry of Culture and Media), and Dennis Schoubye (Head of Gamecity Hamburg). 

The Funded Projects 2026 

• Manor Cartographer by Pipapo Games – € 80,000
• Odem by Odd Zeroes – € 80,000 
• Welken by Studio Gutheil – € 60,000 
• Ungradable: Twisted Card Grading by Chasmic Drop Studio – € 48,000 
• The Wrong Horse by Bird Outside Studio – € 40,000 

Manor Cartographer by Pipapo Games 

Manor Cartographer is a cozy horror puzzle adventure in which players must escape from a haunted manor. Using a map they create of their surroundings, players navigate through various rooms in the dark, solve puzzles to find new paths, and face eerie monsters. 

Odem by Odd Zeroes  

Odem is a roguelike deck-builder featuring real-time combat on an occult game board. In this action card game, players use cards to summon characters from fantastical realms and battle sinister shadows in real time. Over the course of the rounds, they build a powerful deck and face off against mystical creatures. 

Welken by Studio Gutheil  

In this narrative survival horror game with a PSX retro aesthetic, players attempt to survive a fateful night in a remote German village in the 1990s. Hunted by relentless enemies, players search farms, fields, and forests for items and helpful villagers to aid their escape.   

Ungradable – Twisted Card Grading by Chasmic Drop Studio  

Ungradable is a horror simulation game in which players take on a new job as card graders. They inspect various trading cards for quality and anomalies, and seal them if anything seems off, to protect themselves from the cards’ dark powers. Anyone who makes a mistake or is inattentive will be haunted by the evil forces within the cards.   

The Wrong Horse by Bird Outside Studio  

In this murder mystery adventure, players attempt to solve the mysterious death of a jockey. They explore the colorful world of the racetrack with its many characters, interrogate suspects, decipher puzzles, and solve the challenges in their case files until the truth comes to light. 

Pipapo Games, Chasmic Drop Studio, and Bird Outside Studio are successful alumni of Gamecity Hamburg’s Games Lift Incubator. Pipapo Games will also release their game, “Map Map – A Game About Maps,” which received Prototype Funding, on May 28. 

All detailed information on the games can be found at: https://gamecity-hamburg.de/funding/#Funded_Projects_2026    

Developers, studios, and startups based in Hamburg or willing to register a business in the city were able to apply for Gamecity Hamburg’s Prototype Funding program from February 2 to March 30, 2026. In 2024, Gamecity Hamburg introduced a diversity checklist as part of the application process for the Prototype Funding program; the responses to this checklist may be taken into account by the awarding committee during the evaluation process.   

Further funding opportunities through Gamecity Hamburg 

Each year, the Games Lift Incubator supports five teams, developers, and startups in developing digital games and preparing projects for a successful market launch. In addition to 15,000 euros in funding, recipients receive a comprehensive coaching and mentoring program with experienced international experts, as well as workshops and subsequent individual support. The application period for Games Lift 2026 runs until June 1, 2026.  

All information can be found at: https://gamecity-hamburg.de/incubator/apply-now/  

Anyone interested is invited to join the Gamecity Hamburg Discord server to chat: https://discord.gg/gamecityhamburg   

News about Prototype Funding and other topics can be found in the monthly Gamecity Hamburg newsletter: https://gamecity-hamburg.de/de/newsletter/   

For further information and questions please contact: 

Anna Jäger
Gamecity Hamburg
PR Manager
T +49 40 23 72 435 – 78 
anna.jaeger@gamecity-hamburg.de