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Games Lift: These are the Five Teams for the Hamburg Game Developer Incubator in 2023
Five teams have won over the Games Lift awarding committee with their game projects. On September 11, the Games Lift Incubator will start for them as a unique support program in Germany. Included is a one-year workshop and mentoring program with international industry experts and 15,000 euros in financial support as well as room for collaboration and exchange with the other participating teams.
More than 30 experts in game design, product development, pitching, business development, press relations and marketing from the Games Lift network will share their experience with the teams to give their projects a professional start. The Games Lift Incubator is organized and implemented by Gamecity Hamburg on behalf of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg.
A total of 24 teams and solo developers applied for the fourth Games Lift Incubator. The decision for the five participating teams was made by the awarding committee, consisting of Mareike Ottrand (Professor for Interactive Illustration and Games/HAW Hamburg), Ole Schaper (Managing Director The Sandbox Hamburg (Sviper GmbH)), Heiko Gogolin (Managing Director Rocket Beans Entertainment) and Amanda Förtsch (Project Manager Gamecity Hamburg).
“With each year of Games Lift Incubator, more talented teams with exciting projects apply,” Schaper said. “The passion and commitment of the developers impress me over and over again. Hamburg’s academic institutions, but also the city’s extremely lively indie scene, ensure that the steady stream of creativity never stops.”
The five winner projects and teams for Games Lift Incubator 2023:
* Chaos Royale by Monodot
* Dottobeau by Dottobeau
* Journey Beyond the Edge of the World by Markus Koepke
* Map Map – A Game About Maps by Kopfkino Games
* We the Valarii by Bagpack Games
Chaos Royale by Monodot is a free-to-play battle royale game with shooting mechanics, full of eccentric and fantastic characters. Different weapon combinations and an improvement of the own shooting power turn the matches for 16 to 32 players into fast-paced firefights.
The team behind Dottobeau formed at HAW Hamburg to develop a classic point-and-click adventure game wherein players solve tricky puzzles by changing the overall atmosphere of the in-game world. The more puzzles players solve, the more new items they can find. This way they can manipulate the storyline and move on to the next chapter of this sensitive adventure.
Journey Beyond the Edge of the World by Markus Koepke is a musical first-person adventure game with a story told through five atmospheric pieces of music. The story, which spans over three time periods, is set in a mysterious abandoned fishing boat whose history needs to be uncovered. This nostalgic, low-poly game world contains a lot of tricky puzzles to unravel.
Map Map – A Game About Maps by Kopfkino Games is a cozy exploration game with puzzle elements where the atmosphere of a relaxed hike meets typical landscape puzzles à la GeoGuessing. The unique mapping mechanic allows players to interact with the atmospheric game world and its many elements in a completely new way.
We the Valarii by Bagpack Games is an entertaining couch co-op racer with a literal spin as the unique motion physics are created by rotating the mouse or stick. The focus is not on competition but on overcoming obstacles and completing boss battles together.
More information about the projects at https:// gamecity-hamburg .de/incubator.
The incubator program addresses the individual needs of developers with comprehensive workshops, mentoring and coaching content. Workshops and mentoring sessions are offered in the fields of project management, marketing and business start-up.
After completing the three-month workshop program of phase one, the teams will present their results to a broad audience at a final public pitch in December of 2023. Phase two will immediately follow and will run until September of 2024.
Starting this year, selected mentors will work even closer with the teams and will support them directly and according to their needs throughout the entire incubator period; Manny Hachey (Chief Operating Officer for THREAKS), Björn Bergstein (Coach and Consultant for Management and Leadership), Daniel Marx (Chief Executive Officer and Game Director for Osmotic Studios), Søren Lass (Business Development Consultant) and Steffen Rühl (Expert for the digital and analog games industry). In periodic, personalized mentoring sessions, they will provide advice to the teams and their project progress. In addition, the Games Lift Network, with more than 30 experts from all areas of the industry, will once again provide support to the participating teams on specific issues from all areas of the development and marketing of digital games. In addition, the teams will receive individual communication support from a PR agency specialized in indie games.
You don’t want to miss the registration start for Games Lift Incubator 2024? Then sign up for our Games Lift mailing list at https:// airtable .com/shrHJMH96v6fYe2yQ.
Further funding opportunities through Gamecity Hamburg
In addition to the Games Lift Incubator, Gamecity Hamburg also supports developers and games companies from Hamburg with a prototype funding. Each year, 400,000 euros are available for games projects from Hamburg, of which up to 120,000 euros can be applied per game. The next application round will start in spring of 2024.

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“Rock the Month”: Spinmatic’s monthly promos to power operator growth
As summer reaches its peak, so do the opportunities for operators partnering with Spinmatic. The premium Slot developer has launched two new exclusive offers as part of its ongoing Rock the Month campaign – a high-impact promotional series featuring targeted incentives, exclusive discounts and seasonal themes designed to support long-term operator growth.
After a strong debut in July with Fruit Fiesta and Summer Splash, Rock the Month has quickly become a key initiative for many partners, offering unique commercial advantages each month, exclusively to Spinmatic clients.
For August, the provider turns up the heat with two new offers: Summer Crash and Freespin Hype. Both are available to apply for until July 25 and designed to help operators during the summer’s most critical weeks.
This August’s promotions offer Spinmatic’s partners the chance to unlock up to 60% off in Revenue Share, depending on the offer selected. Full activation details – including game selection and placement requirements – are reserved exclusively for Spinmatic’s operator network.
“Our goal with Rock the Month is to bring consistent value to our partners,” said Norbert Mathies, Managing Director at Spinmatic. “We know operators are constantly under pressure to keep players engaged, so with our monthly promotions, we aim to offer something that’s genuinely useful. With two offers available each month, operators can choose the one that best fits their market. At the same time, we’re helping them get more out of their campaigns and explore new games with reduced risk.”
Spinmatic encourages operators and industry stakeholders to stay tuned, as new Rock the Month promotions will continue to be rolled out monthly. For those looking for innovative ways to increase player loyalty and revenue, now is the perfect time to get involved.
The post “Rock the Month”: Spinmatic’s monthly promos to power operator growth appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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BHA Initiates Campaign Against Tax Hike
The British Horseracing Authority (BHA) has urged the sport to collectively lobby the Government to back British racing and axe the Treasury’s proposal to hike tax on horserace betting by bringing existing online betting duties into one single rate.
The call comes ahead of the launch of “Axe the Racing Tax”, a BHA-led public campaign against the proposal which will be rolled out over the summer.
A tax hike for bookmakers in the Autumn Budget would be the third leg of a triple whammy of financial threats caused by Government policies which jeopardise the future of the sport in Britain.
Economic analysis commissioned by the BHA shows that aligning the current 15% tax rate paid by bookmakers on racing with that of online games of chance – currently taxed at 21% – by harmonising all remote gambling duties, could hit racing’s finances to the tune of £66m in lost income via the Levy, media rights and sponsorship. This is because operators are likely to seek to mitigate significant tax rises through cutting bonuses, reducing advertising and marketing budgets and increasing prices.
Should the Treasury seek to raise the proposed single duty rate further to help balance the books, the impact on racing’s finances would be devastating, with a projected £97m loss at a tax rate of 25%, a £126m loss at 30% and a £160m loss at 40%.
Brant Dunshea, Acting Chief Executive of the British Horseracing Authority, said: “It is vital that everyone working in racing, the media and bettors fully support and promote this campaign.
“The Government’s consultation on harmonising online betting duties, if followed through, poses one of the gravest risks to racing the sport has ever seen.
“It will punch a huge hole in racing’s finances, risk thousands of jobs across Britain and threaten the future of the country’s second most-popular sport and a cherished national institution.
“From now until the Budget we will be hammering home a very simple message to MPs, Peers and the Government on behalf of millions of racing fans. It’s time for the Government to back British racing and axe the racing tax.”
The post BHA Initiates Campaign Against Tax Hike appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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Change of Chairmanship in the GGL Board of Directors as of 1 July 2025
On the occasion of the four-year anniversary of the Joint Gambling Authority of the Federal States (GGL) on 1 July 2025, Sandro Kirchner, State Secretary in the Bavarian State Ministry of the Interior, for Sport and Integration, has taken over the chairmanship of the GGL Administrative Board, succeeding Reiner Moser, Head of Office in the Ministry of the Interior, for Digitalisation and Municipalities for Baden-Württemberg.
During Reiner Moser’s term as Chairman of the Board of Directors, the GGL further established itself as a reliable institution for the supervision and monitoring of the online gambling market.
“The online gambling market has developed rapidly in recent years. The GGL has met the resulting challenges with great commitment and can already demonstrate remarkable results both in combating illegal gambling and in regulating and supervising the legal market. The exchange between the states and the GGL is always trusting and results-oriented. I would like to sincerely thank the Board of Directors and all GGL employees for this constructive cooperation over the past year,” said Head of Department Moser.
State Secretary Kirchner takes over the chairmanship at a time when the GGL is pursuing ambitious goals, including stronger international networking, particularly to further curb the illegal gambling market.
“The consistent prosecution of illegal offerings and player protection are my highest priorities. The work of the GGL must continue to be significantly geared towards ensuring that the business model of illegal gambling is not profitable in Germany,” said Sandro Kirchner.
With regard to his role as Chairman of the Board of Directors, he added: “I look forward to continuing the successful work of everyone involved over the past four years. We will certainly continue to face many challenges. However, I believe the GGL is well positioned to achieve this.”
The Board of Directors is the supervisory and steering body of the GGL. It consists of the heads of departments or state secretaries of the ministries responsible for gaming supervision in the 16 member states. The chair of the Board of Directors rotates annually on July 1st in alphabetical order of the member states.
The post Change of Chairmanship in the GGL Board of Directors as of 1 July 2025 appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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