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[Jonathan Burroughs]

Hello all,

I wanted to ask if any of you Ireland or United Kingdom based indie devs have had any success securing funding? And if so with what entities and under what sort of conditions?

Currently Variable State exists as a loose collective of 3 developers; two of us based in London, the third in Dublin.

We're still deciding how best to formalise ourselves as a business. Do we register as an Irish company or a British one? Or can we exist as a collective, with all 3 of us self-employed but operating under a common label?

Part of that consideration is what doors we risk closing with regards funding opportunities.

For example I'm anecdotally aware that Ireland presents a number of opportunities for grants for small businesses in support of their huge animation industry. Which is increasingly diversifying into game development. Some of these grants would only be available to us if we were registered as a company in Ireland.

If any of you have any first hand experience securing funding which you're allowed to talk about, I'd love to hear your stories. In the meantime I'm going to devour everything to be gleaned from the PixelProspector business section: http://www.pixelprospector.com/the-big-list-of-funding-resources/

Om nom!

[Jonathan Burroughs]

I did come across this in my travels:

http://gameslab.creativeengland.co.uk/

Sadly I'm a London resident and this is only targeted at those based in the South West or West Midlands, but I appreciate it's probably useful to many of you here.

The search continues!

[knifeySpoonie]

I've been looking myself at funding options should I leave aaa development and go indie.. I'm in brighton so again its not open for a lot of grants other regions have access too.

but a lot of lesser known or local grants can be found at your local chamber of commerce, and they come and go regularly so your best off calling them and asking what your options are.. they also put on "social events and mixers" so devs/freelancers can meet and share info etc... and also set up meetings where investors can meet small firms where you can pitch ideas etc...

[Bradders]

We managed to get some funding via Creative England, but it's very much aimed at companies in the West Midlands and South West.

Look at Creative Skillset.  You may be able to get some funding towards staff salaries and training.  They have quite strict rules, but can be quite useful.

[kyotokid]

Yo, we're in Ireland/UK, I applied for the New Frontiers Phase 2 programme. It's a lot of work but if you get accepted and do the business work (..there is a lot) then you get a stipend of €15K spread over 6 months. We just had our first payment.

After that there is LEO (Local Enterprise Office) who can help give some assistance with employee costs (we're not there yet).

Then there is the 'big' ones; CSF. The competitive start fund which is 2 x €25K. Problem with this is that there are a LOT of start-ups in Dublin so its...very competitive.

More here: http://www.gamedevelopers.ie/features/viewfeature.php?article=5653

[MiNTO]

If your young enough you could apply for the Princes Business Trust. I did it and got a £3,000 loan and a £500 grant. The grants go up to £1,000 and the loans go up to £5,000.

I know it's not a grant but the loan repayments are small and completely negotiable so it might be an option if you go the UK route.

http://www.princes-trust.org.uk/need_help/enterprise_programme.aspx