Polish government launches €18m fund for ‘innovative’ games

The Polish government has teamed up with local games organisation Polish Games Association to bolster local games developers working on boundary-pushing projects.

The investment fund will offer €18 million ($20.5m) to studios working in Poland on “industrial research and experimental development or experimental development only”.

“Any Poland-based company is eligible if only it has an innovative project to pitch, which fits within designated program parameters,” Stan Just, R&D manager at The Witcher developer CD Projekt Red, which is based in Poland, elaborated to GamesBeat.

In addition, devs must be working with a budget of between 0.5m zloty ($130,000) to 20m zloty ($5.2m) and a timeline of up to three years.

Just added that the initiative isn’t aimed at start-up companies, but instead at established studios looking to move into more innovative work.

The grant is non-refundable, and will cover from 40 to 80 per cent of costs. The amount provided is dependant on studio size, research type and other factors such as agreeing to share research with other developers via events and magazines.

Polish Games Association was originally formed in 2014 under the moniker of the Polish Games Treaty by nine developers in the region including CD Projekt Red, Dying Light outlet Techland, CI Games and 11 bit Studios. The body now has 14 members from across the Polish development industry.

“[The ‘Polish Games Treaty’] initiative was the starting point of our common effort to achieve better economical conditions enabling the local industry to make higher quality games,” Just observed.

“We wanted to catch up with booming gaming markets in [the US] or Canada, which are offering a wide range of financial support instruments to nurture the sector.”

UPDATE: This article originally stated that CD Projekt Red had teamed up with the Polish government to launch the fund. CD Projekt Red was one of the studios that helped to found the Polish Games Association, which is working with the government on the initiative. The text has been updated to clarify this.