“We learnt from last year that although some founders
often have industry experience in their discipline, actually running a business, shipping a game and raising finance are often complete unknowns to them. We found that our programme of technical, production, design and development modules, as well as business, marketing and finance worked well, and we’ll be making sure they are covered again.”
OPEN SEASON Applications for 2022’s Tentacle Zone founder intake are being accepted from 10th February 2022 until mid-March (check
www.tentacle.zone for precise details). All early-stage game developers from underrepresented backgrounds who are based in the UK or in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) regions within the GMT +4 time zone are welcome to apply. “We’re fortunate to be in a position where we’re able to
give something back to the wider games industry,” says Valand “Improving equality, diversity and inclusion in the industry and within Payload Studios is a long-term goal for us. The incubator is one of the ways we’re working towards this and the work is far from over. We’re keen to emphasise that sharing knowledge and supporting developers internationally as well as in the UK is important to us. “Everyone contributing to the programme has last year’s
experience fresh in their minds and we’re all well placed to make sure that 2022’s cohort get the most from taking part.”
LAURE DE MEY, BALLOON STUDIOS How are your efforts coming along since being accepted into the programme? After joining the Tentacle Zone programme, I received a lot of mentoring to perfect my pitch and demo, and by the end of the programme I signed a deal for Botany Manor! We’re now fully in production, and are in the middle of scaling up the team in the art department. Botany Manor is a first person puzzle game where
you play as a retired botanist, who wants to cultivate her collection of mysterious seeds inside her beautiful manor house.
What’s been the biggest surprise so far? I honestly never expected to have gained such strong connections with the people in the cohort. Everyone was incredibly talented, lovely and supportive. I thought it would be hard to form friendships over Zoom, but it all went pretty naturally! In a time of a pandemic, it was actually pretty great to have such a tight community
for four months, and still be ongoing. I even ended up working with fellow cohort member Samantha from Clockwork Raven Studios as my narrative designer on Botany Manor!
What’s been the most important benefit of the incubator program? The biggest benefit for me personally was mentorship towards my pitch and publisher demo. I was also able to be introduced to publishers and investors I wouldn’t have been able to meet otherwise. The incubator also offers pitch practice, which really helps loosening up and feeling confident talking about your game.
What’s been the weirdest thing? It was sometimes weird to think how these really amazing, high profile people from the games industry were my mentors!
What’s the one piece of advice you would give to someone thinking of signing up to join the 2022 intake? Make sure you have a good idea of what you want to get out of the programme. You’ll get access to many mentors and workshops, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed with help and information. It’s easier if your mentor knows exactly how to help you, and you can bring specific questions to them. Also don’t be afraid to apply! I’m very good at coming up with reasons why I shouldn’t apply, but you never know what other people see in you. That’s definitely been my biggest lesson from being in the incubator!
JEFFERY THOMPSON JR, EPOCH MEDIA What have you been working on? We are working on our game Pension$, the game is a third person stealth action game set in midwestern America, specifically
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