A look at the Montpellier Game Lab incubation program

Spotlight on the Montpellier Game Lab incubation program

Objectives? The idea is to combine Montpellier BIC’s experience in assisting entrepreneurs with Push Start’s technical and market expertise.
 
This incubation program revolves around five main components:

• One-on-one coaching by François Cubaynes, coordinator of the Push Start association, and Frédéric Lopez, vice-president of the association, and a project manager at BIC.
• Approximately ten group training sessions for studio managers on the topics of management, industrial property, video game accessibility, business models, and more.
• Three days of in-person seminars combining training and interaction between studios.
• Mentoring by experienced studio executives.
• Networking with other players in the ecosystem.

The projects submitted by the six finalist studios

On Wednesday, February 8, six studios presented their projects to an audience of about forty people, including funding providers, experts, partners, and participants from the first edition.

• Aïko Creative has created a third-person adventure game project that mixes exploration and platforms related to rock climbing.
• Studio Camelia worked on a role-playing game project based on a Mediterranean theme.
• Handmade Dreams Studio (based in Toulouse) presented “Oglinda”, a game that follows the journey of two children through an entirely hand-painted dream world.
• Hot Chili Games presented “Elypse”, a platform video game scheduled for release within a few weeks.
• Kinky Rocks Studio (based in Toulouse) announced “Tacticube”, a turn-based tactical game on a cube.
• Sandfall Interactive showed an ambitious role-playing game in a fantasy universe.

===> Feedback from the studios

“Montpellier Game Lab helped us open our eyes to some aspects that are essential when creating a game project, by supporting us in a caring manner and giving us constructive advice combined with valuable presentations. We sincerely thank them for their precious help,” highlights Handmade Dreams Studio.

“The Montpellier Game Lab program helped us reinforce our production plan and integrate our activities into the rich video game ecosystem present in Occitanie and Montpellier. The interaction between studios and other stakeholders is essential for improving our games and our businesses,” adds Sandfall.

“Montpellier Game Lab was an instrumental factor for the early days of Hot Chili Games. Because the company was founded by a team of juniors fresh out of school, the support of more experienced people helped us establish a solid foundation from an operational, technical, and administrative perspective. But Montpellier Game Lab’s biggest contribution was to introduce us to a network of industry professionals who were willing to share their knowledge and experience,” points out Hot Chili Games.

Cultural and Creative Industries, a booming sector in the region supported by Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole

Designated as France’s most attractive and resilient metropolis in the Arthur Lloyd 2022 survey, the Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole area is filled with creative potential and is a stronghold for Cultural and Creative Industries, notably thanks to the presence of key structuring sectors such as video games, digital technologies, along with world-class schools and training opportunities.
 
With nearly 300 M€ in sales revenue in 2021 and 2,500 jobs in the sector, the Montpellier area is also distinguished by the establishment of key CCI companies: Ubisoft in 1995, Netia in 2004, Dwarf Animation in 2010, TSF in 2015, Plug In Digital in 2017, France TV Studios in early 2018, Fortiche Prod in 2020, Smart Tale Games and Supamonks in 2021, the Virtuos group in 2022, and Mathematic in early 2023.

Montpellier Métropole supports development in the sector by providing value added services such as incubation, a start-up seed fund, business conferences and events with the first edition of the ICONIC festival in November-December 2021 for CCI companies, assistance for relocation, and much more.

An entire district in Montpellier is also dedicated to welcoming companies in the CCI sector: Creative City.
 
Lastly, the city of Montpellier and Montpellier Métropole benefit from one of Europe’s leading game ecosystems, a pioneer in many creative fields linking culture with digital technology. The ecosystem was also recognized at the last Game Awards ceremony, at which two local studios were honored for their work: Blue Twelve for its independent game Stray and Fortiche, with some of its team based in Montpellier, which created and co-produced the series Arcane, winner of the award for the best adaptation of a video game for “League Of Legends”.

Montpellier is home to a rich ecosystem of training programs as well as both promising and established young studios in the video game sector, united by the Push Start professional association.