Check your Game

Check your Game is a call for projects by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia which aims to encourage and accompany emerging game developers in the first steps of their professional career.

Up to 6 teams will receive coaching from more senior Swiss game developers and guidance for their first project. Through 8 hours of coaching and a series of webinars, the initial concepts will be developed into complete Game Design Documents and early prototypes. The coaching and webinars are organised together with SGDA.

The eligible projects are independent interactive works for computers, mobile phones, tablets, game consoles, virtual reality glasses or similar platforms that are in a very early stage of development. They must hold a high degree of interaction, meaning that the action of the user must have a major impact on the unfolding of the content.

The selected projects will benefit from the following support:

• 8 hours of coaching by a senior game developer.
• Access to a series of webinars.
• Financial support of CHF 10’000.- to complete the Game Design Document and early prototype (paid in two instalments).

General conditions of participation:
Applicants must fulfil the following criteria:

• Applicants may submit up to one year after graduation (either 2021 or 2022) and must be new in the business, without any projects on the market yet.
• To be eligible, applicants must be either Swiss citizens or have permanent residence in Switzerland.
• Applicants must hold the rights of their projects.
• Applicants must be able and willing to allocate sufficient time to work on their projects in the coming months.

Project submission:

• The application deadline is Thursday 1 September (inclusive, until 23:59).
• Applications must be submitted via email to swissgames@prohelvetia.ch (title of email: Check your Game application – name of project). The application dossier must include the following:

• • Contact information
  • Short biography and portfolio (include education, nationality and/or residence status – max 500 signs including spaces)
  • Concept description, including images or sketches (max. 3 pages)

The selection will be done by a jury of experts. The jury will meet at the end of October 2022 and the results will be communicated by the end of November 2022 at the latest.

The restrictions for the Work Grants are valid also for this call: https://prohelvetia.ch/en/guidelines-interactive-media/factsheet-work-grants/