A panel of industry experts dispenses advice on where to find funding, how to pitch, and what investors are looking for

GamesIndustry.biz hosted a panel during Game Republic's Investment Summit at MCM Comic Con in London on October 23, where editorial director Jon Hicks talked to Lirui Ding (principal at Transcend Fund), Nick Cavander (senior portfolio manager at Creative UK), and Cassia Curran (founder of Curran Games Agency) about the current state of investment in the games industry.

The panel gave advice on a number of questions facing developers in 2026, namely: where is the money, what are investors looking for, what should you put in a pitch, and how important are wishlists?

The money for making games is still there, said Ding, even if it's harder to access now than it was in the past. He recommended trying a mix and match approach, looking for pots of funding from different sources, like Kickstarter or government grants – an approach that Spilt Milk's Nicholas Lovell used to great effect for the development of Trash Goblin.

Cavander agreed: "There's just bits everywhere," he said, pointing towards government pots like the BFI Global Screen Fund and the UK Games Content Fund, as well as angel investors and informal investment groups formed of high-net-worth individuals or families. Piecing together funding like this might offer a more attractive alternative to going all in with a publisher.

Source link