Google indie games accelerator, a mentorship, training, and networking program for gaming startups, is graduating its first batch today. Two Pakistani gaming startups, we.R.play and Dreamnode Studios are part of this first graduating batch.
A little bit about IGA
Google Indie Games Accelerator (IGA) is a program for gaming which consists of a curriculum based upon mentorship, training workshops and clinics, and networking sessions. During the two months long boot camp, startups were given an opportunity to work with mentors from Google and the gaming industry, focusing on these core areas:
- Game Development: Design best practices, Google Platforms (Android Studio, AR Core, Firebase, Google Cloud, Instant Games), Unity
- Business Development: Google Play Console, YouTube Gaming, User Acquisition best practices, Monetization models and more
- People and Team Culture Development: Hiring the right people, building company culture and leadership development.
As part of the program, here’s what the graduating startups received:
- Invitation to attend 2 all-expense-paid gaming boot camps at Google Asia HQ in Singapore
- Personalized mentorship from top experts from Google and the gaming industry
- Opportunity to be showcased on Google Play
- 1 Google Pixel phone
- US$ 20,000 in Google Cloud Platform and Firebase credits, with training and support
- Invitation to attend Google Playtime 2018 in Singapore
- Delegate pass to Google I/O 2019
- Invitation to a Unity “Unite” event of their choice in SEA or India
Pakistani Startups graduating
The first batch of IGA was announced back in August and it featured two Pakistani startups — we.R.play and Dreamnode studios. we.R.play are the studio behind the viral mobile game Run Sheeda Run and Explottens. we.R.play was founded in 2010 and has over 95 artists, content designers, engineers, and QA analysts. It has won multiple awards for its work in advancing the gaming community in Pakistan.
Dreamnode Studios is a new gaming studio which was created with the aim of creating fun, challenging and engaging apps for the whole world. Dreamnode studios are developers of Flukeoff Football: Online Multiplayer Soccer game which was developed specifically for the IGA 2018 bootcamp.
Both of these startups are graduating from the IGA 2018 class and will definitely contribute towards advancing the local gaming industry with the invaluable experience gained by being part of this accelerator program.
