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Your Career in the Games Industry

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Your Career in the Games Industry Start your career in the games industry New The MedienWiki homepage www.medienwiki.org offers you all necessary information with videosabout study courses and apprenticeships in the games sector as well as information about more than 200 media jobs. In addition to that, you can also fi nd internship and job offers in the media sector. Québec scholarships: The program is made for game design and game engineering students as well as for media and computing students. For more information please visit our homepage www. mediencampus.de. Further information about the media industry will be presented at the „Medientage München“ fair, which takes place from October 16-18, 2013 at the fairground ICM in „München- Riem“. Students will have the chance to talk directly to professionals from the media and games industry. There is no entrance fee for the MedienCampus area. If you are interested in the „Medien Magazin“ by the MedienCampus Bayern, please write us an email: [email protected]. The „Medien Magazin“ will be sent to you at no charge. www.mediencampus.de www. medienwiki.org BAVARIA ENTER THE GAME EDITORIAL In the summer of 2009, the FFF was commissioned by the variety of courses are now Bavarian State Chancellery to establish a funding pro- available at Bavarian universities. gramme to support the games industry financially. This Not to mention the ever-increasing was a major challenge for us, as the gaming industry was number of diverse enterprises that en- an entirely new field with new players and new rules. hance the Bavarian hub. Over the past four years we have familiarized ourselves And so with this brochure we would with the hugely diverse games industry and are cons- like to shine a spotlight on some of the games Prof. Dr. Klaus Schaefer tantly amazed that the digital economy changes so ra- Managing Director industry’s representatives in Bavaria and thereby pidly, especially in this sector. Moreover, as the games in- FilmFernsehFonds Bayern make clear just how deeply it influences and drives dustry is under continuous renewal and development to the economic and cultural development of our State. keep pace with the ever-rapid technological innovations, To that end, we have selected five representative this hub has likewise adopted this dynamic rhythm and has hugely de- companies, each of which uniquely illuminates a facet of our region. Un- veloped in terms of its public institutions and private players. fortunately, there is not enough space in this brochure to profile every Games development in Bavaria was not reinvented with the intro- company and initiative in Bavaria. Please refer to the address section for duction of funding for the industry, as numerous businesses and regio- the names of and links to all industry participants in the latest location nal associations (such as the Videospielkultur Verein e.V.) already existed survey on behalf of BLM. at that time. Nevertheless, the linking of FFF Bayern and the Bavarian I now kindly invite you to explore with us the Bavarian games scene State Chancellery, combined with financial aid, contributed to stabilizing together with us. Follow us on this path and – Enter the Game! the industry and thus affording it greater attention. And a lot has cer- tainly happened since then! Established institutions such as the Bavarian media regulator BLM, the MedienCampus Bayern, the Chamber of Indus- try and Commerce and the Bavarian Broadcasting BR have all embraced the issue, and additionally there is now a newcomer on the scene – Photo Prof. Dr. Klaus Schaefer: © Kurt Krieger 2011 Dr. Prof. Photo WERK1 – a business incubator for digital industry start-ups. Plus, a wide www.fff-bayern.de facebook.com/FilmFernsehFondsBayernGmbh Bavaria – Enter the Game 3 THE GAME CONTENT 6 BAVARIA – ENTER THE GAME! 14 THE GAME WORLD Bavaria: A games hub: Four policy makers and experts from Bavaria and its local games industry discuss the status quo. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 THE STORY From business surveys, to delegation trips to Retro Exchange. --------- 10 THE INTRO Games funding: How the FilmFernsehFonds Bayern actively supports Bavarian 16 game developers with their projects. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14 THE BASIS Werk1 – home base, business hub, event centre of the Bavarian games industry. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16 THE TUTORIAL Training in Bavaria: How the MedienCampus Bayern promotes the education and training of game developers. ---------------------------------------------------------- 18 18 4 Bavaria – Enter the Game 20 THE MISSIONS From a team of students to a game studio: Mimimi Productions ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 20 From board games to hybrid games: 21 Ravensburger Digital ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 21 To bring games to millions of mobile phones: HandyGames ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 22 Viewers become players: ProSiebenSat.1 Games ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 24 Core games for the international market: 22 Koch Media ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 26 THE QUESTS You definitely should not miss: The most important dates, events and venues of the Bavarian games year. ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 28 THE KEY PLAYERS Bavaria‘s games industry from A�Z: 24 The adresses and contact details of more than 100 companies. ������� 30 THE CHARACTERS Who‘s who? The right expert for every matter. ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 34 26 Bavaria – Enter the Game 5 The Bavarian State Chancellery: Local media policy starts here with onus on games. THE GAME WORLD BAVARIA: A GAMES HUB INDUSTRY & POLITICS IN DIALOGUE A round table of four policy makers and experts from Bavaria and its local games industry discuss the current status of the region as a games hub and its aims and positioning in the future. Mid-May, a blue and white sky above the Bavarian State Chancellery Thomas Kreuzer, in the heart of Munich. Sunshine seeps into the room, subdued by Bavarian Media Minister and head of the Bavarian State Chanceller the dark roller shutters in front of the large panoramic windows. Prof. Dr. Klaus Schaefer, At a round table four key players talk about how the Bavarian games Managing Director FilmFernsehFonds Bayern hub will develop in the future: Dr. Klemens Kundratitz, Managing Director of the games publisher Koch Media and member of the board of BIU (German Games Association) Hendrik Lesser, Managing Director of the games production company Remote Control Productions, Managing Director and board member of Videospielkultur e.V. and board member of G.A.M.E. (Association of the German computer & videogame industry) They answer questions from Munich journalist and games programmer Richard Löwenstein. 6 Bavaria – Enter the Game Four key industry players from Bavaria speak about games and much more in the Bavarian State Chancellery (from left to right): FFF Managing Director Klaus Schaefer, Koch Media Managing Director Klemens Kundratitz, Media Minister Thomas Kreuzer, G.A.M.E. board member Hendrik Lesser. Mr. Kreuzer, the games industry has been benefiting from a strong part- launch of the programme, the FilmFernsehFonds Bayern has distributed over ner by its side for several years now, namely the Free State of Bavaria. €2 million in funding. We specifically focus on the development and produc- You have backed the industry yourself several times and are quoted as tion of high quality projects with a cultural and educational approach, devel- saying: »Bavaria is the State of game developers«. What is your impres- oped mainly within the region of Bavaria. Many of the funded productions sion of the status quo of the industry in Bavaria today? are on the verge of being launched and some are already on the market. We Thomas Kreuzer Bavaria is a diverse media location. We have entrepreneurs support young companies by providing advice on funding. But we get also in- here, large and small firms and we want to further develop these structures. volved in the Bavarian booth at gamescom in Cologne or by organizing a Ba- Electronic games are a link between the cultural, creative and web economy. varian umbrella booth at Games Connection in Paris or a delegation for Car- I think that we have provided many great stimuli to support the industry over toon Movie in Lyon. the last four years. We greatly value networking. The games-lab WERK1 is an example of this. We want to continue on this path. Klemens Kundratitz If I could just quickly add something: If we not only want to sow the seeds but also want to achieve a speedy and major eco- Mr. Schaefer, Bavaria introduced a funding scheme for the develop- nomic success story, we should consider funding in global terms as op- ment of computer and video games some time ago. What are the posed to just cultural. Perhaps other criteria could be considered, such
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