Founder of Secret Item Games and current one man studio Oswald Weber. © Secret Item Games Development Secret Item Games: "You Must be Able to Take a Punch" From Indie to AAA: On a regular basis, we have a look at a studio from the German-speaking development scene. This time: Secret Item Games from Dortmund. Once a development and porting team of six people, founder Oswald Weber is now going it alone again – working hard to survive By Pascal Wagner • 3 min read
© Unity Development Unity is Committing $500,000 to Unity for Humanity 2025 From now on, creatives can apply for a grant from Unity as part of the Unity for Humanity program. For the first time, there is also a category for student projects. The Unity for Humanity program is open to all categories of the creative industries, so it is not limited By Stephan Steininger • 1 min read
André Naumann, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM, Central German Media Funding) at the end-of-year reception of MDM in Leipzig © MDM/Uwe Frauendorf Development MDM Expands Funding Opportunities for Game Studios in Central Germany The Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM, Central German Media Funding) has launched its first dedicated funding guideline for games, which has been approved by the European Commission and will take effect at the start of the new year. This marks a significant boost for studios based in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. By Stephan Steininger • 1 min read
© Narranauten Development The 'Narranauten' Want to Strengthen Narrative Design and Game Writing A group of regional narrative designers and game writers has formed in Leipzig: the 'Narranauten'. The eight-member team from Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt aims to raise the visibility of narrative design and game writing and strengthen their position in the games industry. Led by Marcus Klöppel, Professor By Marcel Kleffmann • 2 min read
John Romero in interview with GamesMarkt, showing off his recent autobiography. © GamesMarkt, Pascal Wagner Events John Romero: "Be Proactive, Just get Your Name out There" On site at DevGamm Lisbon, we sat down with Doom maker and Romero Games founder John Romero to talk about the industry layoffs, moving a game company from the US to the EU, the recent strides of Ireland's new games tax break and different ways indie developers can By Pascal Wagner • 10 min read
© itch.io Development Itch.io Now Requires Gen AI Content to be Tagged in All Games and Asset Packs The indie store itch.io has introduced a requirement for game developers and asset pack makers to disclose if their products utilise Gen AI content. Users can then filter for Gen AI and Non AI tags separately if they choose. Indie game online store itch.io has introduced a requirement By Pascal Wagner • 1 min read
© Torpor Games Business Under the Hood: Modular Building Kit in Torpor Games' The Conformist In our regular GamesMarkt series In Development, game studios present pictures of what's going on under the hood in their game making process. This time, Torpor Games shows the modular building set for their coming Suzerain prequel The Conformist. By Pascal Wagner • 2 min read
Jens Andersson (left) and Axel Torvenius from MachineGames in interview with GamesMarkt. © GamesMarkt, Pascal Wagner Business G+ Axel Torvenius and Jens Andersson: "MachineGames Stands for the Cinematic, the Story First Approach" By Pascal Wagner • 6 min read
Participants of the 4th Games Summit in North Rhine-Westphalia © Land NRW / Robin Teller Business NRW Increases Games Funding Budget for 2025 to Over 6m Euros At the fourth games summit in North Rhine-Westphalia, Media Minister Nathanael Liminski did not hold back with his criticism of games policy in Berlin. At the same time, he made it clear that NRW is not only maintaining its games funding of over 5 million euros, but that it By Stephan Steininger • 2 min read
© InnoGames Development InnoGames Welcomes 130 Participants to IGJAM One of the most established game jams in Germany, the 15th InnoGames Game Jam (IGJAM), took place on the second weekend of November. InnoGames welcomed 130 developers to its in-house event venue, where 24 games were created in just 48 hours. The theme of this year’s IGJAM was By Stephan Steininger • 1 min read
Unphased on his third trip to the stage: Sven Ahlgrimm receives the Excellence in Audio award for Oddada. © GamesMarkt, Pascal Wagner Development Oddada and Dungeons of Dreadrock 2 Succeed at DevGamm Awards 2024 At the DevGamm Awards 2024, Manor Lords won the Grand Prize of the twelve categories collectively endowed with 100,000 euros in prize money. Star of the evening however was Oddada developer Sven Ahlgrimm, who received two prizes on behalf of Christoph Minnameier's Dungeons of Dreadrock 2 and By Pascal Wagner • 2 min read
Björn Weinbrandt © ©Björn Weinbrandt Business Gamecity Hamburg Unveils New B2B Conference: Portside Game Assembly The new conference format will debut on June 27, 2025, in and around the Port of Hamburg. Participants will need to be seaworthy, as the main conference will be held on a ship sailing through Hamburg’s harbour. According to Gamecity Hamburg organizers, the concept for the Portside Game Assembly By Stephan Steininger • 2 min read
