globalgames.fund is the global games fund

Supporting pre-production & prototype stage game projects by developers in emergent territories with funding, mentorship, and access.

We are announcing the Global Games Fund by gamedev.world. The Global Games Fund will launch later in 2024, and will work with developers in emergent territories to support & fund their work through prototype-stage and pre-production project-based funding up to US$50,000 with transparent & developer-friendly recoup structures.

Like access to knowledge, funding is not fairly distributed around the world, across languages, and across cultures. Living in the West, speaking English, and making games based on Western culture and mythology gives developers structural advantages in attracting publisher funding and investment. The Global Games Fund focuses on developers outside of the Western world, and allows developers to communicate & pitch their titles in Arabic, English, Spanish, French, Hindi, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, or Simplified Chinese.

The Global Games Fund also builds upon gamedev.world's mission by providing fundees support with access to industry-leading mentors for all aspects of pre-production & development - from creative direction to marketing, and from production to individual disciplines. Access to these resources and sessions will be available throughout the full development of each title, with translations provided to and from all our supported languages.

Over the past half a decade, the gamedev.world team has been focused on releasing industry knowledge across the language barrier to make the games industry a more fair, more inclusive, and more global industry. Having over 30,000 attendees at the gamedev.world events has proven a continued need for genuinely global games conferences, instead of a collection of high-expense, inaccessible, and deeply restrictive events by corporations that focus on profits and gatekeeping.

But events offer more than just knowledge. As networking spaces, events offer developers access to investors, publishers, funds, and grants - necessities for many viable paths to participation in the modern games industry. Developers from around the world are often dependent for their survival on their ability to visit expensive & visa-limited international events to access early-stage funding opportunities.

We believe that’s unfair: any developer, anywhere, and in any language, deserves access to funding structures and opportunities to make great games. With the Global Games Fund, gamedev.world continues to expand its global mission of making the games industry a truly global industry.

1. A covered territory means any developer that has grown up in, or is operating in a country outside of North-Western Europe, Canada, the continental United States, Australia, or New Zealand.

For Developers

The Global Games Fund is launching in Q2 2024. The fund will be available to developers in any covered territory, with an available funding range of US$5,000 - US$50,000.

Minimum deliverables for funding are a prototype with mockups of the art-style, or a vertical slice with the art-style implemented, and a clear production plan including a budget & timeline for the development of the full title. At Global Games Fund’ discretion, funding will be made available either directly, or in agreed-upon Milestones.

The Global Games Fund allows for three ways of recoup:

  • A one-time 300% buy-out at time of signing any funding deal.
  • A one-time 100% buy-out at time of signing any funding deal, with a reduced revenue share against developer revenue no higher than 30%, with a maximum of 500% of the initial investment.
  • A high-percentage revenue share against developer revenue no higher than 50% until recoup, and a revenue share against developer revenue no higher than 30% after recoup.
  • The term of all recoups expires three years after the launch of a title. If a title has not recouped at this point, any remaining debts and conditions are waived.

Mentorship is fully arranged by the Global Games Fund, and covers topics such as creative direction, publishing, production, marketing, and design. Other mentors will be made available on requests. Mentorship is optional & not required, but a developers’ willingness to participate in mentorship the Global Games Fund sees as relevant to the title’s success is used as part of the risk-assessment process for funding.

For developer-related inquiries, please contact funding@gamedev.world. Please note we cannot take pitches or submissions until the fund formally launches.

For Publishers & Funds

The Global Games Fund is to collaborate with publishers, platforms, and investors. Our goal is to create additional creative opportunities for emergent developers in the pre-production and pre-funding stages through targeted funding & mentorship.

Having worked with countless games studios and publishers, our team understands that many pre-production titles do not manage to reach state in which they can be viably considered for funding. Being unable to financially support these projects due to the structures or requirements of your funding opportunities routinely sees incredible projects fizzle out due to a lack of funding to unlock further stages of development.

Global Games Fund exists to help in these cases, too. Our pre-prototype funding & our mentorship programs can help the developers of such projects reach further stages of development with increased clarity and opportunity for both developer and publisher. If your publisher or fund has been impressed by a project that just needs those few months of focused work, we’d be happy to discuss a potential partnership or opportunity, including a conversation about the mentorship or guidance you believe that developer might need.

We’re also happy to add you to a mailing list of participating games that the Global Games Fund has invested in or worked with and now considers great opportunities. If you’re interested in being kept up to date, please do let us know.

For any publisher-related inquiries, please contact funding@gamedev.world. Please note we cannot take pitches or submissions until the fund formally launches.

For Mentors

Global Games Fund’s ability to maximize the chances of success for developers is dependent on the availability of mentors of various backgrounds, languages, and disciplines.

Please let us know if you are interested in mentoring a studio, either structurally, one-off, or ad-hoc, in any of our supported languages - Arabic, Spanish, English, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, French, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, or Hindi. Please note that our mentors are also expected to be able to communicate in basic conversational English or French for purposes of coordination.

Global Games Fund can offer a small reimbursement for mentorship. For all mentorship inquiries, please contact Global Games Fund at funding@gamedev.world & include your timezone, language, and expertise.

For Investors

Global Games Fund is happy to partner with, or discuss investment from any interested parties. For all investment-related inquiries, please contact Global Games Fund at funding@gamedev.world.

For Press

For all press and media inquiries, please contact Global Games Fund at funding@gamedev.world.

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