Ten projects were selected by this spring’s Interactive Media Work Grants jury for their artistic quality and originality.

The jury was composed of the following experts: Georg Baier, Denis Ferrier, Astrid Refstrup, Yannick Rochat, and Faviana Vangelius de Heijne. The jury met online during three days to discuss all the applications and make the selection.

The jury stated: “The diversity presented in the applications in terms of types of games (coop, strategy, interactive novels), genres, platforms (mobile, VR, console) and background of the game developers is amazing. There are many new teams coming together and looking to build their presence in the interactive media landscape, which is a good sign for the future. The scene is currently very lively, it is nice to see all this activity and creativity emerging again after the pandemic.”

Full line-up of awarded projects:

Pre-production funding:

Circle of Kerzoven – Marco Burri

«Circle of Kerzoven» is a city building strategy game paired with an immersive simulation. The player manages their citizens, resources, production lines and the interaction with the surrounding nature.

Ultimate Godspeed – Ninoko

«Ultimate Godspeed» is a party racing game all about modifying the racetrack. Place unique items on the level and bring chaos to the race! Use different objects like ramps, platforms, holes or mischievous traps. Freeze other players with the ice patch, kill them with deadly rotating saw blades, or obscure their sight with oily surfaces. Then race each other. Over and over again. The goal: creating the shortest path for yourself or the most pain for your opponents.

Feudums – Kalamona Studios

«Feudums» is going to be an approachable, massively multiplayer grand strategy game with a community-driven narrative, which places players as the head of a small Noble House and tasks them with forging their legacy during the cruel Middle Ages. «Feudums», at its core is a management, social and building game.

Cora. An interactive graphic novel about the corona generation – Inlusio Interactive

«Cora» is an interactive, playful and reality-inspired Graphic Novel about a young woman who reflects on her struggles during the Corona pandemic and how she was able to overcome them.

Nawarak – Manuel Wirth, Denise Meier, Martin Hodler

«Nawarak» is a multiplayer RTS game that breaks up its genre by introducing non-colonial aspects. Players share one goal: Save the Mo’ol that is vital for keeping up the fragile ecosystem in this arid, barren, post-apocalyptic desert. Plenty of mean, but non-violent actions create a fun and diversified gameplay in each session. The tunable game duration allows even busy people to play.

Symbiose – Tourmaline Studio

«Symbiose» is a platform and survival game in which you play as a small symbiote living in harmony inside a giant creature. You must survive dangerous vermin that have come to invade your friend, the creature, and its fate is directly linked to yours. Your senses are limited but you can count on the creature to lend you hers in order to protect her! «Symbiose» is a game about disability from a new angle: accessible, poetic and surprising!

Production funding:

Kandria – Shirakumo

«Kandria» is an action RPG set in a broken down, post-apocalyptic desert. Explore a ruined open world of caverns, settlements, and puzzle-platform challenges. Hack and slash your way through missions: patrol borders, repair machines, scavenge supplies – choose your quests and dialogue. Or go fishing, forage mushrooms, and race the clock! The old world is gone – the future is up to you.

Tavernacle! – Dama Dama Games

«Tavernacle!» is a co-op Tower Defense game in which up to four players control a group of Dwarves, in a fantasy setting, defending what’s most valuable to them: their brewery. It’s a building game that you can play with your friends, and in which you have to craft traps, build defensive structures and coordinate to protect your beloved tavern.

Post-production funding:

Deep Space Gardening – Nevolane

«Deep Space Gardening» is a couch co-op game for up to 4 players. The goal of the game is to grow and deliver plants together with your fellow players in order to save the ecosystems of the neighbouring planets. In keeping with the space theme, all levels are in fact tiny planets, which not only gives the game its distinctive look, but also allows for level design beyond the constraints of a flat plane.

Helvetii – Team KwaKwa

«Helvetii» is a 2d action game mixing acrobatic and fast combo-based fights with a reimagining of Gaulish, Celtic and Alpine mythology, set a bit before the Gallic Wars. Take control of various characters, like a fierce young warchief, a naïve but dexterous fox-turned-man or a cunning druid wielding primordial forces, and use their unique and varied combat skill to fight your way through hordes of creatures and put an end to the rot that has taken over the land and lives.