Games Lift has chosen five development teams in Hamburg to support with the Games Life Incubator 2025 program, which will provide the teams with mentorship, funding, and workshops through the next year.
This is the sixth year of Games Lift Incubator, which is put on by Gamecity Hamburg. This year, 43 teams applied, and a committee made up of the following games industry professionals:
- Kristin von der Wense, Publishing Producer at Daedalic Entertainment
- Ole Schaper, Managing Director at The Sandbox Hamburg (Sviper)
- Heiko Gogolin, Managing Director at Rocket Beans Entertainment
- Tobias Graff, Co-Founder at Mooneye Studios
The development teams chosen were picked after consideration of the projects they proposed. The five games chosen span genres and styles, though all of the teams are based in Hamburg.
The Wrong Horse puts players in the shoes of a journalist who’s untangling a murder mystery revolving around a horse racing track.
Encaged and Ungraded is part job simulation and part horror. Players will work as a card grader, though things start to shift as anomalies get more sinister.
Fading Skies is a classic 3D platformer where players travel as a young woman named Ryn, who is joined by a small dragon.
Phasmopass is a roguelite with turn-based combat where players are trying to escape a never-ending volleyball reality show.
Last but not least is the action-adventure game Project: Slimepot (a working title). Players will go through dungeons, collecting resources to make dishes to serve at their tavern.
The first three months of the Games Lift Incubator program is a workshop. During this, the developers will work on pitches for their titles, which will be presented in December this year.
The second phase of the program lasts until August 2026. During this, the teams will work with mentors from across the industry who suit each team’s individual needs. Some of the mentors include Manny Hachey (Accelerator Program Director, Xsolla), Björn Bergstein (management and leadership coach), Daniel Marx (CEO and Game Director, Osmotic Studios), Søren Lass (Founder, Tugboat Interactive UG), and Steffen Rühl (an expert in the gaming industry.
The chosen development teams can also consult and question any of the 30 experts within the Games Lift Network over the next year.
Margarete Schneider, the Project Manager at Gamecity Hamburg and part of the selection committee, shared her thoughts on this year’s Games Lift Incubator:
“We are delighted about the rising awareness and popularity of Games Lift – this year we received applications from seven countries and three continents. However, we also see the growing demand as a sign that, in the current industry situation, low-threshold support programs such as the Games Lift Incubator are becoming even more important. We are therefore very pleased to accompany five Hamburg teams on their way to the successful release of their first title.”
For more news on things going on in the games industry, check out Koei Tecmo’s latest financial results (and the game teasers it brought), along with Krafton’s acquisition of Eleventh Hours Games (which developed Last Epoch).
