Early-stage indie game developers who have secured financial support for a prototype face a critical transition from concept to market-ready product, where strong business foundations are essential for success. This dedicated business development programme looks to bridge this gap by equipping developers with the necessary skills in leadership, financial management, legal compliance, and market strategy.
Beyond technical development, navigating publisher negotiations, securing additional funding, and understanding monetization models are crucial for long-term sustainability. By providing expert mentorship, networking opportunities, and practical business training, the Elevate programme ensures that developers maximize their initial funding, and equips game developers with the strategic, financial, and operational skills needed to build sustainable and resilient businesses.
This programme will be designed for, and delivered to, the participants of the Indie Dev programme, complementing the creative and technical skill building for successful teams. It will be delivered in a hybrid format over 5 months.
ELEVATE has been designed as a natural extension of previous programmes run by Imirt and Ardán, namely the Irish Games Talent Incubator and IndieDev. While this programme is designed with those people in mind, as an all-digital, remote run programme, ELEVATE is open to all individuals in the Irish Games Sector who want to elevate their business skills and desire help in running a successful games studio.
Positioned as a natural next step beyond the incubation stage, ELEVATE supports start-ups in building the foundational capabilities needed to operate sustainably, navigate commercial opportunities, and prepare for long-term growth.
Bridge the skills gap by equipping early-stage game studios with essential leadership, business, legal, and financial capabilities to support sustainable growth.
Complement and extend existing programmes (IndieDev 2025 and Incubators 2025) by providing a structured next-step that integrates commercial development with creative and technical training.
Enable practical business readiness through hands-on experience in investment strategy, marketing, branding, and game launch planning, helping teams build viable business strategies and industry connections.
Develop confident, resilient studio leaders who can scale their teams, navigate the complexities of the games industry, and establish long-term commercial success.
Date: February 4th
Facilitated By: Henrich Jonsson, Pictiv
Explore what makes a games studio attractive to investors while staying true to its creative vision and values. The session will cover investment readiness, studio valuation, business models, funding strategies, investor expectations, and how to structure a compelling proposition without compromising creative independence.
Date: February 11th
Facilitated By: Katelyn Divilly, OMT Global
Growth starts with the person leading the studio. This session explores self-awareness, leadership mindset, personal effectiveness, decision-making and resilience, helping founders understand how their own behaviours and leadership style can enable—or constrain—studio growth.
Date: February 18th
Facilitated By: Lena Mech, Cosy Game Studio
A practical look at the realities of financing and commercialising an indie game, from approaching publishers to negotiating deals. Topics will include publisher expectations, pitching and materials, deal structures, revenue share, advances, milestones, funding alternatives and the questions developers should ask before signing.
Date: February 25th
Facilitated By: Donncha Hughes
Discover how to identify and pursue public funding opportunities that can support studio growth. The session will cover finding the right opportunities, understanding assessment criteria, developing a strong proposition, structuring applications, demonstrating impact and writing clearly and persuasively for assessors.
Date: March 4th
Facilitated By: Thierry Beaujard, MediaDeals/Spielfabrique
Explore the European games funding and production landscape and the range of models available to studios looking to scale. Topics will include co-production, publishing partnerships, European funding mechanisms, IP ownership, deal structures and how to build effective international partnerships.
Date: March 11th
Facilitated By: Chris Goodyear, Many Cats
Inclusion is both a creative opportunity and a business consideration as studios grow. This session will explore practical approaches to accessibility and inclusion across game development, from inclusive design and player accessibility to studio culture, recruitment, team practices and creating products that reach wider audiences.
Date: March 18th
Facilitated By: Katelyn Divilly, OMT Global
As studios grow, effective collaboration becomes increasingly important and more complex. This practical session explores team dynamics, communication, trust, psychological safety and constructive conflict, with tools for recognising tensions early and creating healthier, higher-performing teams.
Date: March 25th
Facilitated By:Dr. Maria O’Brien, University of Galway
A practical introduction to the tax landscape for growing games studios, with a focus on understanding the opportunities and obligations that come with growth. Topics will include relevant tax incentives and credits, R&D expenditure, employment considerations, IP, company structures and common pitfalls to avoid.
Date: April 1st
Facilitated By: Katelyn Divilly, OMT Global
Growth brings change—and leaders need to help their teams navigate it with clarity and confidence. This session will explore developing and communicating a compelling studio vision, managing change, aligning teams around strategic priorities and evolving leadership approaches as the organisation grows.
Date: April 8th
Facilitated By:Melissa Phillips, Games Leadership
Explore how leadership needs to evolve through the different stages of a games studio’s journey. The session will consider the transition from founder-led development to sustainable leadership, covering delegation, team development, succession, culture, values and building a studio that can thrive beyond its founders.
Date: April 15th
Facilitated By: Carley McGlynn Green
Great games need both creative freedom and effective project management. This session explores how studios can introduce structure without stifling creativity, covering planning, scope, prioritisation, workflows, milestones, production rhythms, managing creative iteration and balancing ambition with available resources.
Date: April 22nd
Facilitated By: Julia Kenny
Take a look behind the curtain at how funders, publishers, investors and programme decision-makers assess games and creative businesses. The session will unpack what makes an application or pitch stand out, how decisions are made, common reasons proposals fall short, and how studios can communicate their opportunity, traction and potential more effectively.
With extensive experience in programming, investments and scouting for the best indie games in the world, Henrik has worked at Ion Storm, Electronic Arts and Embracer Group. He has also operated his own Game Industry Growth Consultancy company, Radgivery, and has worked on small games, big games, good games and bad games.
He is now working as Principal Developer and Business Advisor at Piktiv, a 60 person strong Swedish Engineering House, specializing in Game Industry engineering and Game Porting projects.
Katelyn brings 15 years of global client-facing experience, including 8 years leading teams in multinational organisations. She combines her advanced academic background in Work and Organisational Behaviour with hands-on leadership experience to help clients build high-performing leaders and teams.
Katelyn has worked with global companies such as Nestle, Lidl, and MediaHuis. She has also designed and delivered courses for digital creatives, Leading for Impact, as part of CREW’s CLIMB Programme.
Donncha Hughes, Business Advisor is a trainer and mentor who specialises in working with start-ups. Donncha’s clients include Enterprise Ireland, Local Enterprise Offices and InterTrade Ireland.
Donncha has been part of CREW’s panel of experts and mentors since 2023, and supports early stage and scaling start-ups in the digital creative industries through our CEED and Explorer programmes, and leads on our Creative Business Cup programme
Lena Mech is a game designer and the CEO of Cozy Game Studio, a team on a mission tomake self-care more accessible through the power of games.
Her background is a mix of
industry and teaching; she has developed purposeful games for brands like IKEA and Deloitte, and has previously lectured at the Royal Danish Academy and the IT University of Copenhagen.
Thierry Baujard has 20 years of experience in international financing in the Cultural & Creative Sector. He has worked many years in film financing before broadening his perspective and investment to Music and Video Games. He is the Managing Director of Pan European investment Network, Media Deals, focusing on seed investment in Audiovisual, Games and Music.
He has also been involved in different EU projects involving Video Games, digital comics/Webtoons and films. He currently has an investment portfolio of 8 creative companies in Europe. He is an MBA graduate from Bocconi and UCLA as well as Laureate from the European Executive programme from ENA in Paris
Chris Goodyear is the founder of Many Cats, a disabled-led accessibility firm that reshapes representation in the gaming industry. Many Cats is a disabled-led accessibility services provider for the games industry, recruiting remote workers from around the world to tackle underrepresentation and inaccessibility.
Chris, a creative digital media graduate, founded Many Cats to create a space where others with disabilities could thrive and contribute their expertise. His personal experience with disabilities made him acutely aware of the industry’s accessibility gaps and the underrepresentation of disabled individuals.
Maria is a lecturer in taxation in the University of Galway, across both the School of Law and the J.E. Cairnes School of Business and Economics. A qualified lawyer, she researches the role of tax in supporting the cultural and creative industries.
Maria will host a talk on the Irish digital games tax incentive regime, Section 481A. She will cover how indie game dev studios can qualify for and claim the tax credit including the cultural certificate process. She will also speak about VAT registration and tax implications of setting up a company.
Melissa is an Executive Coach specialising in Leadership, Management and Personal Development. She has worked in the Games Industry for over a decade, with a career spanning almost 20 years in the Entertainment Industries. She has held various roles in Games from Head of Studio to Operations Director, and continues to work directly in Game Development as an Operations Consultant. She regularly works with startup Studios and on projects spanning from Indie to AAA.
Melissa founded Games Leadership as a space where Leaders could feel seen, build confidence, and lead in a way that feels true to who they are.
A lifelong gamer with 27 years of experience in the advertising, video production, video direction, animation, live event, and gaming sectors, Carley is a creative leader dedicated to getting the job done.
Carley prioritises honest communication, apply decades of practical experience, ensuring creative assessments and solutions are delivered with candour and courtesy.
Julia’s background is in video game publishing and business development. She has worked both on the publishing and developer side of investment and publishing discussions, with a particular focus on content acquisition. What drives her is her passion for bringing great games to the consumer and forming meaningful relationships. She is currently working in the SEGA Searchlight team, SEGA’s publishing and incubation arm for original IP.
Date: February 19th
Facilitated By: CREW
A practical, scenario-based session where participants can test their leadership skills in realistic studio situations. Through role play and peer discussion, the group will explore challenging conversations, managing underperformance, giving feedback, resolving conflict, setting boundaries and making difficult decisions as a studio leader.
Date: March 5th
Facilitated By: CREW
A hands-on clinic to help studios pressure-test and refine their business model using the Lean Canvas. Participants will work through key areas including problem, solution, customer segments, unique value proposition, channels, revenue, costs and key metrics, with focused feedback on the assumptions that matter most for their growth.
Date: March 19th
Facilitated By: CREW
A practical session focused on protecting creative thinking and development time while managing the demands of running a growing studio. Participants will explore prioritisation, delegation, time management, reducing operational overload, establishing productive routines and creating space for the creative work that drives the business forward.
Date: April 9th
Facilitated By: CREW & PWC
An opportunity for participating studios to bring their specific tax questions to PwC experts and get practical guidance relevant to their stage of growth. Topics may include R&D and creative industry tax incentives, corporation tax, employment and contractor considerations, IP, international activity and common tax issues encountered as a games studio scales.
Date: Pitching to the Enterprise Ecosystem
Facilitated By: CREW
A practical pitching session focused on communicating a games studio’s proposition to enterprise agencies, funders, support programmes and other ecosystem stakeholders. Participants will refine how they articulate their business, opportunity, traction, funding needs and growth ambitions, while receiving feedback on how to make their pitch clearer and more compelling to non-games audiences.
April 29th -In Person
Facilitated by: Julie Kenny
An in-person closing session bringing the ELEVATE cohort together to reflect on their progress, share experiences and build connections across the games ecosystem. The event will include informal networking, structured feedback and reflection on the programme, followed by a Q&A with Julia Kenny, offering participants the opportunity to explore key challenges, insights and next steps for their studios.
