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German government reveals major funding programme for local games industry, pays for up to 50% of dev costs

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Bushido

Bushido

Senior Game Designer
Verified
Feb 6, 2018
1,849
EagleClaw said:
It will be just for games that represent the german or european culture.
All project leads have to life in germany and the team must be of german university graduates.

It is for small german developers, but sadly also only for games like Landwirtschafts Simulator.
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You're phrasing it incorrectly though.There are 13 different criteria and the game has to fulfill 5 of them.

a.) 4 out of (can be less if the game fulfills a lot of criteria under b.)):
  • Game takes place in Germany or the European Economic Area or has some historical connection
  • Main character is a German or European figure (actual or fictional)
  • The events in the game are somehow reflecting the culture of Germany or the European Economic Area (story, cultural heritage, pop/media/games/youth culture, society, traditions), or it's based on a literary or cinematic source from Germany or the European (language) area (which includes myths, fables and science-fiction), or highlights regional diversity within the EAE, or has ties to German game culture [...], BUT can also be non-European in exceptional cases if it's really creative or innovative in other aspects
  • Game will be available in German language
  • The majority of development has to take place in Germany
  • At least 50% of developers live in Germany (the Lead developers like producer, art director, game design lead have to)
  • There are graduates from German universities in the team, but they can also be from other countries if they now live in Germany
b.) 1 out of these:

The game is creative or innovative in...
  • narrative structure or build-up
  • or character design, setting, story, environment
  • or music
  • or interactivity, multiplayer, interface, user-generated content
  • or AI
  • or new technology in the development process, execution or application

This is pretty easy to fulfill honestly, as the bold ones should be a given in almost every German studio anyway.
 
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Lausebub

Lausebub

Member
Nov 4, 2017
3,151
EagleClaw said:
I'm sure even after Brexit britains culture will be still european.




Yeah, there is the possibility, but they have to deliver more on the points II and III, and that will be decided by some state official.
I think for a lot of developers, that really wanna make good selling games, this is not really interesting.

I understand that the state doesn't want to "pay" for some action or horror games, but to grow the industry you have to produce things that sell well.
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As I understand it, they would pay for action and horror games, as long as the team is in Germany. Also games like the Witcher or most medieval/fantasy
games should have enough european cultural influence, but who knows how stringent they will judge all this.
 
EagleClaw

EagleClaw

Member
Dec 31, 2018
10,683
Bushido said:
How you're phrasing it is not correct. There are 13 different criteria and the game has to fulfill 5 of them.

a.) 4 out of (can be less if the game fulfills a lot of criteria under b.)):
  • Game takes place in Germany or Europe or has some historical connection
  • Main character is German or European
  • The events in the game are somehow reflecting German/European culture (story, cultural heritage, pop culture, society, traditions), but doesn't have to if it's really creative or innovative in other aspects
  • Game will be available in German language
  • The majority of development has to take place in Germany
  • At least 50% of developers live in Germany (the Lead developers like producer, art director, game design lead have to)
  • There are graduates from German universities in the team, but they can also be from other countries if they now live in Germany
b.) 1 out of:
  • The game needs to be especially creative or innovative in:
    • narrative structure or build-up
    • character design, setting, story and environment
    • music
    • interactivity, multiplayer, interface, user-generated content
    • AI
    • new technology in the development process, execution or application
This is pretty easy to fulfill honestly, as the bold ones should be a given in almost every German studio anyway.
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I think that cultural clause makes it not a big deal.
I don't trust some state official to rate the creativity of some content.

Maybe it will bring something great like Crysis, it is one of the biggest games out of germany, but i don't think so.
 
Akai

Akai

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,045
Bushido said:
How you're phrasing it, it's not correct. There are 13 different criteria and the game has to fulfill 5 of them.

a.) 4 out of (can be less if the game fulfills a lot of criteria under b.)):
  • Game takes place in Germany or Europe or has some historical connection
  • Main character is German or European
  • The events in the game are somehow reflecting German/European culture (story, cultural heritage, pop culture, society, traditions), but doesn't have to if it's really creative or innovative in other aspects
  • Game will be available in German language
  • The majority of development has to take place in Germany
  • At least 50% of developers live in Germany (the Lead developers like producer, art director, game design lead have to)
  • There are graduates from German universities in the team, but they can also be from other countries if they now live in Germany
b.) 1 out of these:

The game is creative or innovative in...
  • narrative structure or build-up
  • or character design, setting, story, environment
  • or music
  • or interactivity, multiplayer, interface, user-generated content
  • or AI
  • or new technology in the development process, execution or application

This is pretty easy to fulfill honestly, as the bold ones should be a given in almost every German studio anyway.
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Thanks for this. I was wondering how exactly they are going to enforce this and what the criteria are, if there were any.

Lausebub said:
If there wasn't a Brexit, a lot of games would pass this test, if they were developed in Germany.
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Great Britain left the European Union and not Europe.
 
Lausebub

Lausebub

Member
Nov 4, 2017
3,151
Akai said:
I feel like I'm missing something. The original post was about european culture, which Great Britain is still part of. Where does the economic thing come from?
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I reread it again, page 7 has the culture test on it, not sure how good the google translation is, when it comes it is based on a literary work or a movie, it has to be
from the european (language) area, so british works would still apply. But in all the other cases it talks about the European economic room, which Great Britain isn't a part of anymore as I understand it.
 
OP
OP
Bushido

Bushido

Senior Game Designer
Verified
Feb 6, 2018
1,849
Lausebub said:
I reread it again, page 7 has the culture test on it, not sure how good the google translation is, when it comes it is based on a literary work or a movie, it has to be
from the european (language) area, so british works would still apply. But in all the other cases it talks about the European economic room, which Great Britain isn't a part of anymore as I understand it.
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I updated my summary above to make it a bit clearer, because the document is alternating between Europe and European Economic Area here and there.
 
TheKeyPit

TheKeyPit

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
5,865
Germany
Someone should give Yager all the money and let them make a 3rd person shooter during WW2. Basically a Spec Ops The Line during WW2.
 
Lausebub

Lausebub

Member
Nov 4, 2017
3,151
Thinking about it, the part in culture test, where it is ok, if it based on a European scifi novel or tv show, but not if it is just a scifi game, made in Germany, implies to me that games are inherently less culturally important then other mediums.
 
Akai

Akai

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,045
Lausebub said:
I reread it again, page 7 has the culture test on it, not sure how good the google translation is, when it comes it is based on a literary work or a movie, it has to be
from the european (language) area, so british works would still apply. But in all the other cases it talks about the European economic room, which Great Britain isn't a part of anymore as I understand it.
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The original source is good, since I'm in Germany. Thanks for the context.

It's actually not as strict as I assumed it would be. Only have to meet a couple criteria from each category and I see even big studios hitting those. Gonna be interesting to see if anybody will actually do something with this. Ubisoft in particular, since they have a relatively new studio in Berlin. I bet they were actually one of the companies pushing for this, since they also struck the deal with the tax break, which led to the studio opening in Berlin.
 
Lausebub

Lausebub

Member
Nov 4, 2017
3,151
In the end, it depends on how competent the people who grant the founds are, since that is also what most devs have been complaining about
and the state said, the need time to get their people up to date, how game development actually works, which apparently takes years.
 
EagleClaw

EagleClaw

Member
Dec 31, 2018
10,683
Lausebub said:
Thinking about it, the part in culture test, where it is ok, if it based on a European scifi novel or tv show, but not if it is just a scifi game, made in Germany, implies to me that games are inherently less culturally important then other mediums.
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That funding programme is from Scheuer (CSU), of course there has to be some Heimat involved.
 
Sho_Nuff82

Sho_Nuff82

Member
Nov 14, 2017
18,413
Didn't Canada do this with their film industry with pretty solid results? Supporting homegrown tech and arts is a good way to grow the white collar job market.
 
Lausebub

Lausebub

Member
Nov 4, 2017
3,151
EagleClaw said:
That funding programme is from Scheuer (CSU), of course there has to be some Heimat involved.
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Yeah, but the weird part is, at least if I understand it right, if you make a game based on a book or show written in Germany, but it has nothing to do with German
culture that's alright, but if you if a German writer writes a game that has nothing to do with Germany that's not ok.
 
EagleClaw

EagleClaw

Member
Dec 31, 2018
10,683
Lausebub said:
Yeah, but the weird part is, at least if I understand it right, if you make a game based on a book or show written in Germany, but it has nothing to do with German
culture that's alright, but if you if a German writer writes a game that has nothing to do with Germany that's not ok.
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Well, i kinda would love a game about Raumpatrouille Orion


It is the german Star Trek so it would surely qualify.

The problem is no one really knows what would be european culture for a scifi game, that is why this founding will be for all the job simulator games.
 
Carn

Carn

Member
Oct 27, 2017
11,911
The Netherlands
Cool! Should be a great boost.

That said, and I'm aware this is something totally different, but it reminds me of shitty Uwe Boll movies because of specific German tax breaks :D
 
StereoVSN

StereoVSN

Member
Nov 1, 2017
13,620
Eastern US
Ok, I had to do this:

ea3.jpg
 
Xater

Xater

Member
Oct 26, 2017
8,905
Germany
About time. Support like this has been needed for a long time. It was sad to see how a German developers disappeared since the mid 90s.
 
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