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Montpellier Game Lab, second season for a success accelerator

Information updated on 05/08/22

Six video game studios were recently chosen to attend the second session of this assistance program designed to reinforce and stimulate growth for promising young studios.

It’s time to kick off the second edition of Montpellier Game Lab: for six months, Hot Chili Games, Aiko Creative Studio, Handmade Dreams Studio, Sandfall Interactive, Studio Camelia, and Kinky Rocks will benefit from this assistance program designed to reinforce and accelerate their growth.
 
The program was introduced in 2021 by Montpellier BIC and Push Start, the regional association for video game professionals and aspiring professionals. The goal is to provide young video game studios with all the tools they need to succeed with their entrepreneurial adventure and to develop their business successfully in the Montpellier Métropole area.
 
Montpellier BIC gives startups the benefit of its internationally recognized know-how in incubation, innovation and, more generally assisting the creation of innovative companies. Push Start brings its extensive knowledge of the video game ecosystem to the program, including project development, the creation process, production flow, methodology, video game funding, and marketing.
 
As for the previous cohort, the program will blend collective actions and one-on-one coaching. The program features eight to ten workshops. Studios will be supervised by a mentor who is an expert in video games. The core program will focus on building studio structure, intellectual property, and more. It will be rounded out by personalized actions, adapted to the issues and challenges of each studio.

“Last year, the studios each had their own specific needs, whether it was strengthening the organization by finding new talent, receiving guidance for elaborating their business model, and even finding publishers. We responded by scheduling meetings with resource people in a position to help them move forward,” highlights Florent Desserre, a business manager at Montpellier BIC who is involved with Montpellier Game Lab.

The five studios that received support during the first session are all now moving forward on more solid footing.

“Following their participation in Montpellier Game Lab, two of the studios hired staff to consolidate their organization and one of them launched the game it had designed; two others clarified and refined their target markets; the fifth studio, which was only in the planning stage at the time, improved its business plan and determined its production schedule,” explains François Cubaynes, general delegate of Push Start and coordinator of the program.

The two coordinators can also count on support from two of the association’s administrators: Frédéric Lopez, CEO of Altshift, a studio that had received support from Montpellier’s BIC in its early days; and Jérémy Zeler, CEO of Midgar Studio.
 
Bblack Studio, Build The Light, Exalted Studio, Fireplace Games, and Play Curious participated in the first group.

What we needed most was mentoring. We were all proficient in our respective fields, but were not necessarily comfortable estimating deadlines, production costs, and more. Montpellier Game Lab gave us the opportunity to identify the areas that we needed to address. That is very reassuring when you are just getting started,” says Anaïs Simonnet, CEO of Fireplace Games and president of Push Start.

Exalted Studio shares the same view.

“The really good thing about this program is its personalized support, adapted to each studio’s stage of development. On top of that, the conferences and workshops were always run by very competent professionals, notably Jason Della Rocca. We were actually able to have one-on-one coaching with him. It was truly rewarding,” adds Laurent Kobel, Game Director at Exalted Studio.

Montpellier Game Lab, once again accelerating success.
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