Second round of recruitment for the Digital Dragons Accelerator. Young gaming studios from all over the world are entering the Polish market

31 marca 2022

Since last year, participants in the Digital Dragons Accelerator are actively working with the programme’s organizers. The Accelerator gives young developer studios within the games industry a chance not just to receive an attractive grant, gain new knowledge or business skills, but primarily to find an investor or publisher for their project. Right now the second round of recruitment is ongoing – it ends on May 23.

Submit for the Digital Dragons Accelerator programme and develop your project!

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Support for foreign studios

Today, the Digital Dragons Accelerator project can offer participants a range of benefits such as:

Soft landing: incorporation of a company in Poland, preliminary development of the company, staff employment, product development
Non-equity grants up to €60,000
Access to the Digital Dragons ecosystem
Cooperation with the partners of the Digital Dragons Accelerator, publishers and investors, to develop/publish the game, or to obtain investments

The Digital Dragons Accelerator is part of the Poland Prize project supported by PARP – the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development (Polska Agencja Rozwoju Przedsiębiorczości). The Accelerator helps individuals, companies and teams from the games industry which have projects in early stages of development, want to develop outside of their native countries and are about to look for investors or publishers.

In the first round of recruitment, which took place last year, submissions from all over the world came in. 83 studios from 31 countries, including USA, Indonesia, Australia, Chile and Argentine, wanted to join the Digital Dragons Accelerator. 11 selected studios received a chance to develop on the Polish market.

We can see the massive interest in the acceleration programme. We talk to mobile, console and PC developers from all over the world. We watch with pride as the people we talk to not only know of Polish gamedev, but see substantial benefits in joining it. Thanks to the Digital Dragons Accelerator, foreign game developers are entering a renowned – in the world and in the community – gaming ecosystem.

Paulina Pyzioł, game industry acceleration coordinator

From the moment of qualifying to the programme, participants work on individual development paths of their projects alongside mentors. Participants were required to start a company in Poland and the Accelerator team helped them in the process. Additionally, a series of business and marketing workshops with Polish games experts began. These initial activities were a part of the soft landing, which allowed participants to have an easier time finding their bearings in a new legal and business environment.

The next stage is working with the chosen investors and publishers who will help participants in putting their products on the market. Every team will be joined by one such partner with whom they will be realizing previously set goals. The organizers are underscoring the variety of the projects submitted to the programme. The rich experience and knowledge of the Polish games market allow everyone, regardless of the scale they worked on previously, to find a suitable company or partner institution.

We are happy that the Digital Dragons Accelerator attracted so many studios from practically the entire world. Thanks to that, we had a chance to see an incredible slice of truly amazing projects – from niche, but socially important titles to games with AA inspirations. Without the Accelerator, some of these projects would have no chance to reach publishers or investors. The programme allows to join incredibly talented, ambitious people with business partners seeking unique projects.

Klaudia Stawska-Magdziak, games industry acceleration specialist

Second round of recruitment to the Digital Dragons acceleration programme takes place from March 1 to May 23, 2022. Companies, informal teams and individual persons outside of Poland can participate in the programme, as long as they work within the industry for no longer than 5 years and want to develop outside of their own countries. Additionally, potential participants must have one video game in development or experience with implementing their previous game. Those might be not only PC and console games, but also mobile titles. Starting a company is not a requirement during recruitment, but after positive verification of the submission every participant should start operating in Poland to gain legal status and help with development, which is something the Accelerator team and its base of experts are actively helping with. Submissions will be judged by the organizers between May 23 and June 30. The teams qualified during the second round of recruitment will be announced in July 2022.

Submissions to the Digital Dragons Accelerator are accepted via form at the programme’s website.

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