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Games Invest 2010: bridging the investor gap

Taking place as part of the London Games Festival at the Eurogamer Expo last week, Games Invest was an attempt by Screen Yorkshire and Game Republic to bring developers face-to-face with the investment community in the UK. Here, sector manager for Game Republic Jamie Sefton, details the event and early feedback...

I've now been running Yorkshire games network Game Republic for two years, and after leaving the ridiculously enjoyable free-beer-soaked world of games journalism, I've learned a lot more about the actual day-to-day needs of games developers – now they trust me not to run off and tell GamesIndustry.biz all the latest gossip about PlayStation 5.

The main thing is that games developers are driven by an absolute passion for games – they put up with the daily hassles of running a creative business simply because they love it. "If you get into the games business because you want a Porsche, you're in the wrong business," a developer once told me over a pint – someone who started programming in his early teens and eventually built up a massively-successful and lucrative company.

While money may not be the key motivating factor for most developers, it is of course the most important factor in running a business – you can have the best ideas in the world, but if you don't have any money to turn them into the best critical and commercial games, you won't have a business for very long. We've seen enormous changes to the games industry over the past few years, with digital distribution giving indie developers huge opportunities through platforms such as the iPhone App Store, Xbox Live Arcade, PSN, Steam and more. For companies such as Team17 and Revolution in our region, this has led to something of a renaissance for them as independent developers; a chance, finally, to be masters of their own destiny.

Harrison's London Venture Partners is looking at seed, early stage and start-up investments, providing the highest risk but potentially the highest return.

However, despite being a fantastic time to be a games developer, it's also perhaps harder than ever to access finance. For many companies, finding a balance between work-for-hire and developing new IP is crucial, but as business models change almost weekly (who had heard of "freemium" a year ago?) and third-party publisher contracts on bigger projects has declined, the question for many UK games developers remains, "where's the money going to come from?"

This is where Games Invest 2010 comes in, and the Screen Yorkshire/Game Republic sell-out event last Friday at the Eurogamer Expo was our attempt at trying to bridge the gap between games companies and investors – whether the games investor is a platform-holder such as Sony, a private investor such as Pembridge Partners or a public investor such as the University of Abertay.

Over 100 attendees comprising of more than 60 small-to-medium games companies witnessed some wildly different sessions on investment, with Phil Harrison in his new role as general partner of London Venture Partners kicking off the discussions with a presentation on market opportunities, the transition between packaged retail to digital and tips on getting investment. Other sessions featured Melanie Hayes, investment manager for 4iP, showing some case studies from the innovation fund's investments, Andy Tait from Pembridge Partners explaining a few dos and don'ts on investment and Paul Durrant, director of business development at Abertay University outlining the government's £2 million prototype scheme.

4ip has recently invested in productions from Dynamo Games, Somethin' Else, Rattle and Mudlark.

Also as part of Games Invest, we facilitated formal meetings in the afternoon between investors and games companies in private meeting rooms on the Eurogamer Expo floor – with more investors, including the BBC, meeting games companies to discuss projects and possible investment. I'm pleased to report that the overwhelming feedback from both investors and companies on those meetings was very positive, with one developer saying to me that Games Invest was "exactly what we need".

Our hope is that Games Invest, at the very least, provided companies with some insights into the dark art of investment and, who knows, may even result in one or more of the companies who attended Games Invest receiving investment to make great games. Certainly I don't profess to know all the answers on funding (I've just got to grips with what "traction" means) but we'll use all the feedback from the day to keep up the momentum and shape future Game Republic events, including Games Invest 2011.

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GamesIndustry International is the world's leading games industry website, incorporating GamesIndustry.biz and IndustryGamers.com.