Nordic Fund gets four times expected applicants

Competition in this year’s Nordic Game Program has far exceeded expectations for the organisers of the initiative.

As many as 136 projects have been submitted for a share of the remaining £350,000 in the Fund, which will ultimately be split between six.

The 136 brings the total number of applicants this year to 228 – a figure which the head of Nordic Game is both proud and worried by.

“The number of projects has increased by 50 per cent from the last round,” Erik Robertson said.

“This staggering figure, about four times what we planned for, proves that the Nordic games industry is still very much expanding, but also that it is impossible for the funding scheme to meet the constantly growing demand.

“We are now beginning to see that the support system is not only in great demand all over the Nordic countries, but also that it does what it’s supposed to.”

The Nordic Game Fund is an annual, trans-governmental fund available to developers across Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. A panel of experts decide on the allocation of the funds, with its most recent high-profile beneficiary being Limbo developer PlayDead.

“The Nordic Game Program was invaluable to the creation of Limbo. The early support was instrumental in realising one of the hardest steps: a working prototype,” says Mads Wibroe, producer at PlayDead.

“In the harsh climate of games development, the Nordic Game Program is a rare source of support,” he continues.

“Indeed, a diverse, creative game-development scene depends upon exactly this kind of committed support – only we need much, much more of it.”

The opposite may be the reality facing Nordic studios; The Nordic Game Program will end in 2011.