20 September 2023
20 September 2023
We would like to welcome our second programme cohort for 2023. Over the next 12 weeks we will be working with twenty businesses, supporting them through weekly masterclass sessions and workshops, and bespoke one to one support with creative industry specialists & experts. We will be working towards getting the businesses pitch ready in order to further their success once our intensive support programme has finished. Creative East is here to support the creative industries in Norfolk, Suffolk, Peterborough and Cambridgeshire to achieve their growth ambitions, and we will be championing our companies throughout the programme. Here’s a run-down of the new set of software and games companies on the Creative East programme;
www.k9digital.co.uk
Contact: Tia Sparling, Co-founder, CFO and Head of Production
About us: 3D Character Outsourcing concept art to modelling through to rigging services for games, film, tv and VR.
Why we applied to join the Creative East programme: Mentoring through factors that haven’t been considered before. Accurate forecasting for expanding the business, networking in the same sectors of the creative industry, understanding how funding and grants work /what is required to apply for these.
linktr.ee/alarmingladder
Contact: Dan Wiltshire, Studio Director/Designer
About us: Alarming Ladder Studios is a small indie games company based in Suffolk, dedicated to creating new, engaging experiences for all. Set up by a group of the University of Suffolk graduates with extensive experience creating games, our studio aims to provide new, interesting experiences for players to dive into.
Why we applied to join the Creative East programme: Learning about investment and how I can shape the company to be attractive to investors.
www.sketchbook.games
Contact: Mark Backler, Founder & Creative Director
About us: At Sketchbook Games we believe video games are the ultimate storytelling medium. We worked with renowned games writer Rhianna Pratchett on the multi-award-winning Lost Words: Beyond the Page, an atmospheric adventure which is available on Steam, Epic, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch and mobile.
Why we applied to join the Creative East programme: Expert guidance.
www.dreadnought-studios.com
Contact: Mike Green, Director and Founder
About us: We used to focus on creating game art but have taken on other jobs in different areas, such as architectural visualisation, filters and games for snapchat and Instagram, online shopping, graphics for web and television content, AR and VR applications – even several metaverse related projects. We are an ‘all-round’ design studio and usually produce the graphics for other creative companies (where they don’t have the expertise in-house themselves) rather than the end clients. We plan to market ourselves in a way where we are seen by those end clients instead and allow us to be involved in each project from the top, rather than being a third party.
Why we applied to join the Creative East programme: We want to get ourselves noticed through proper marketing. Finding contacts who can understand what we are trying to do will help us achieve this I feel.
www.mlc.studio
Contact: Max Louis, Founder & Studio Director
About us: MLC is a network of game artists that service game developers to create art such as characters, environments and other production and marketing assets. MLC builds teams of artists and assigns producers to collaborate directly with the game developers (client). In the industry, it’s known as outsourcing or external development.
Why we applied to join the Creative East programme: We would like to understand what investors want to see from our pitch and shape our business to be ready for a fast growth strategy. We have established ourselves as a profit-making business over the past 5 years and we are now ready to become a more significant part of the games industry, one of the fastest-growing industries. We would benefit greatly from the in-person sessions with peers and one-to-one mentorship that is relevant to our goals and business strategy.
www.thesoftwaretailors.co.uk
Contact: Emrah Aydinalp, Founder
About us: As The Software Tailors Ltd we aim to serve care homes and care facilities around the country with a care software which is easy to use but also has capacity to fulfil complex needs.
We managed to sell application to a care facility but weren’t able to get in the market with our own limited resources and capital. I have very good knowledge of Care business and software general but in sales and marketing we are very much limited without having large budget.
www.coderus.com
Contact: Mark Thomas, Owner, Founder & Innovator
About us: Coderus is a leading software and mobile application development, design and consultancy service, providing mobile and embedded solutions for blue-chip international companies, helping at any stage of the development process, from building prototypes to product commercialisation. We have more than 20 years’ experience in software design and the knowledge and expertise to strategically guide our clients through every project with confidence.
Why we applied to join the Creative East programme: I have never pitched for investment before and want to be sure when we do we have the opportunity to best prepared as possible. So would like to have help of their expertise.
www.greenlit.com
Contact: Peter Storey, Founder and CEO
About us: For four years, Greenlit has been Britain’s premier crowdfunding platform dedicated to the creative sector. We have enabled over 500 artists to raise millions of pounds in funding for their work in film, theatre, music and gaming.
To date, we have been entirely bootstrapped. We are now about to embark on fundraising of our own, to launch more products to serve our community, and the creative sector. An insight we have gained is that many creatives lack business skills and experience. We aim to become a definitive platform for funding and broad business services, enabling artists to become entrepreneurs.
Why we applied to join the Creative East programme: To allow focused development of new products. To allow entry into new market segments where we do not have a strong presence, notably music and gaming. To build market share of our core funding offering.
www.tinybrains.uk
Contact: Kevin Joyce, CEO
About us: Tiny Brains Ltd. is a company which assists startups in the XR sector. One of our projects is a summer school which upskills people from a variety of backgrounds in the creation, execution and distribution of XR content and art.
Why we applied to join the Creative East programme: Networking, investor relationship development, and development of necessary financial documents.
Fully funded by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)
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