Creative England to nurture UK dev scene with $1.2M investment programme

British not-for-profit organization Creative England wants to build out the country's dev scene with the opening of Gameslab Leeds, a new initiative that will pour roughly £1 million ($1.23 million) worth of investment into the region. 

The new programme will run for three years, during which time it'll look to support "innovative" game studios and digital companies based in Leeds City area. 

£300,000 ($371,000) worth of grants will be made available through Gameslab Leeds until 2019, while it'll also offer non-financial support in the form of masterclasses, mentoring, workshops, and networking events.

Investments will be awarded to those businesses keen to scale up and make new hires; collaborate with research institutions; and introduce new products to the market.

"With access to finance being such a crucial issue for games developers, we are delighted to launch GamesLab Leeds today. My hope is it will give developers across the Leeds City Region a chance to build ideas and prototypes without fear of failure," said Rob Crossley, Creative England’s Head of Games. 

"We want this fund to unlock creative opportunities that would otherwise be hard to get off the ground and I'm so pleased that this three year programme offers developers access to workshops, mentoring, and trade missions to GDC and other industry events."

Creative England is already on the hunt for four Leeds-based games companies to take to next year's GDC Conference in San Francisco. 

It's hoped those developers will seize the opportunity to meet with publishers, platform holders, and investors and to raise awareness of the Leeds dev scene. 

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