games:net: Money and Paperwork-Funding for Game Devs

With speakers from the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (Bundesministerium für Verkehr und digitale Infrastruktur – (BMVI)), DLR Projektträger (DLR-PT), Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Investitionsbank Berlin (IBB) and Investitionsbank des Landes Brandenburg (ILB), the panel covered a wide range of available funding programmes and gave lots of insights, directly from representatives from the different institutions.

Speakers

Matteo Riatti (DLR-PT), born in 1989, lives in Berlin and is working as project manager for the German federal funding-program for video game development within the DLR-PT. He has a background in semiotics and media science, a PhD in Game Studies, is an avid gamer and is still waiting for Half-Life 3.

Jenni Wergin (Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg) loves everything gaming related: She started her career in the games industry as the Project Manager of Womenize! Games and Tech. For four years, her job started by drafting the concept and ended at midnight after the conference. In September 2018 she joined Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg as the Funding Manager for innovative audiovisual content with a focus on games and gaming events. She is responsible for the local game scene in Berlin and Brandenburg. Every now and then she gets the chance to host events like Gamefest and Seitenquiz. Apart from that, she is recording Let’s Plays during her off days for the YouTube channel Two Into Indie. She holds a master’s degree in European Media and wrote her master’s thesis about the disappearance of the minimap in open-world games.

Artsiom Zhavarankau (IBB) works for the IBB since 2013 and is in the position of the Key Account Manager ICT. In addition to his position, he is also generalist for public funding and specialist for corporate financing.

Sebastian Storm (ILB). After working as a line producer at Studio Babelsberg, Sebastian went for an internship to Los Angeles 2001, worked 2002-2004 as an in-house producer for the DaimlerChrysler commercial unit, until he founded 2005 his own production company Pipeline Filmproduktion, which was based in Ludwigsburg and Berlin, and with which he produced over 50 award winning commercials, short films and feature films. From 2014 to 2020 Sebastian produced feature films and documentaries at Storming Donkey Productions. Since March 2020, as Head of Media Department at the Investitionsbank des Landes Brandenburg (ILB), Sebastian is responsible for regional and national subsidies in Germany and bank loans for independent producers.

We thank everyone for joining us for this interesting talk.