We at AZTB always geek out over new Arizona incubators, so naturally we were excited to hear about a new incubator program based out of Game CoLab, a community advocate for video game developers, announced a new game studio incubator program established with the help of an economic development grant from the City of Phoenix.
The incubator program will run throughout 2014 and will bring together four teams for this first pilot year. The teams will be given space to work and study and take part in regular networking events and pitch events with fellow mentors.
“Phoenix is home to a lot of great game development and industry executive talent and the Game CoLab has been a space for the community to get together and share best practices. Thanks to the City of Phoenix, the incubator program will allow us to take our work to the next level and assist local teams in the process of creating successful games and studios,” said Ben Reichert, co-founder of Game CoLab.
“We have been given the opportunity to support the video game industry in Arizona, and while the focus has so far been purely on entertainment, games can impact key economic drivers for Phoenix including health, learning and business services. The Game CoLab will be actively reaching out to other industries as well as we look to identify partners that can support our goals.”
In addition to the incubator, Game CoLab has also launched an Education Hackathon with Pearson Education that will culminate on May 16th with a public pitch event of educational games. Individuals and teams are encouraged to apply and submit their games at: www.hackathon.io/game13.
Game CoLab has also been working with Tristan Parrish Moore, developer of the Grave game as a first candidate for the incubator program. Grave is a first-person, open-exploration survival experience where the player must discover a series of mysterious items in an abandoned town that is paired with Oculus Rift.
If you have a game idea and live in the Phoenix area or are willing to relocate, apply for the Game CoLab Incubator Program! The program runs twice a year for four months, but applications are accepted year round. Apply here. http://www.gamecolab.org/incubator
We’ve followed them from the beginning, read more about Game CoLab at AZTB
Read more about Tristan and Grave game here
