Torpor Games, Mucks! Games and Realities.io Among the Winners of the Cultural and Creative Pilot Awards

For the 15th time, innovative entrepreneurs in the field of cultural and creative industries in Germany have been honoured as Culture- and Creative Pilots aka Kultur- und Kreativpilot*innen in German. Among the winners are Torpor Games, Mucks! Games and Realities.io.

The prize, awarded on behalf of the German government, was presented for the 15th time to innovative entrepreneurs in the cultural and creative industries in Germany. A total of 32 prizes were awarded. Among the winners are a number of games companies from the AI/Digital sector, namely Mucks! Games from Ludwigsburg, Puzzling Places from Realities.io from Berlin and Torpor Games from Berlin.

Mucks! Games, founded by Clara Deitmar, Luzie Kehle and Julius Dorsel, wants to do more than just entertain. They want to convey messages about digital wellbeing, interpersonal relationships and feminism, as in their interactive bedtime story The Bear. They are currently working on Frieda is changing - a feminist fun horror detective game. "We are very happy about the award - recognition from the cultural industry is important, but it is not our main motivation. We want to exchange ideas, develop skills and learn how to navigate the start-up space successfully," says Clara Deitmar (Co-Founder & Game Designer and Storyteller).

Daniel Sproll, Marcel Poppe and Shahriar Shahrabi founded Realities.io in Berlin in 2016 with the aim of using immersive technologies to allow people to experience the real world in new ways. Their VR game Puzzling Places allows players to assemble 3D miniatures of the world's most famous places. The Realities.io team plans to develop and launch a 2D version next year - a step in the transformation from a venture-backed tech start-up to a self-funded games studio. "The road to Puzzling Places has been long, not always straightforward, and we are still a long way from our goal - but the award confirms once again that it is absolutely worth it," says Daniel Sproll (CEO).

Torpor Games, a Berlin-based interdisciplinary team, is committed to developing narrative-driven digital games that provoke reflection and make politics tangible and experiential. Their games ask profound political and moral questions to raise awareness of social issues and political systems and dynamics - as in Suzerain. Building on this, the team is currently developing The Conformist, in which players explore political landscapes through the eyes of a propagandist. "The award confirms that we are on the right track in developing innovative games and motivates us to continue pursuing our vision of political education through interactive experiences," says Ata Sergey Nowak (Managing Director and Co-Founder).

GroovIT from Berlin also received an award. Founder and CEO Andreas Schneid and his team have created a platform that uses gamification to teach musical instruments.

All winners can now look forward to a year-long mentoring programme, including workshops to further develop their entrepreneurial skills. They will also have access to inotiv, a network of over 450 alumni entrepreneurs and experts from previous juries.

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