Cold Sector Joins 20 International Studios for the European Videogame Accelerator kick-off in Málaga

This year, Cold Sector, a local studio from Jörn, made it into the top 20 selected studios, surviving a rigorous qualification round that considered around 150 applicants. In early April, they journeyed to sunny Málaga for an inspiring kick-off.

Joining was Harry Heath, who runs Cold Sector by himself. As a lone entrepreneur, Harry faces many unique challenges & joining an accelerator like EVA offers him incredible value. Through the programme, he was eager to soak up all the advice he could to set up the company and his game, Pawsta, for continued success.

1-on-1 Mentoring

One key part of EVA is having intimate conversations with industry veterans, who have the potential to become long-lasting mentors to the studio runners.

A particularly useful session for Harry was meeting with Michael Liebe & Manuel Hernandez Pietro of Kickstarter, as Harry is soon launching a campaign for Pawsta on their platform. 

The two keyed Harry on to how Kickstarter can actively support ahead of the launch, and detailed how conversion rates from the preview page notify system to backers are surprisingly strong on Kickstarter (ca. 20% first-time & ca. 50% for veteran campaign-runners). 

Inspiring Talks & Workshops

Some great talks were also held at the event to inspire the studios. And then workshops allowed them to dive deeper into one of the following areas: Financing, Studio Organisation, and Marketing & Comms. 

Peter Warman championed “purpose” in his speech, using his many years of building up Newzoo to reflect on how entrepreneurs should lead with it. He shared that you should always prepare for success by thinking & acting ahead, but then always be smart enough to pivot in time when change is coming. Perhaps one simple quote best summed this up:

Rami Ismail also held a particularly memorable speech that broke down some of the key challenges facing indie studios today. One big takeaway was his advice on when to share games, suggesting that it’s often best to go quiet about your digital darling if you can get funding, but otherwise go crazy sharing it everywhere. After all, “publishers are opportunists.”

Harry then attended Bertrand Vernizeau’s workshop on “How to write a growth strategy”, which also included some transparent reflections on how to overcome hardships & avoid burnout, recommending that leaders “regulate [themselves] on a daily/ weekly business”. 

For his final workshop, Harry joined Astrid Refstrup (Wings) & Eva Gaspar (Abylight Studios) to contemplate “Leading in the times of crisis”. Many of the studios & veterans joining shared big learning lessons, mostly pertaining to company hires & incompatibilities. One uncomfortable truth shared was that it’s often a better idea to hire leads than level-up early adopters.

Learning from International Studios

Of course, a great highlight of EVA for Harry was getting to know the other 20 studios & the leading talent behind them. Being solo, learning from bigger studios was eye-opening for Harry and gave him fresh ideas on how to carve the best path forward.

He was also glad to see another studio specialising in cosy games had qualified – Humble Reeds – the two-person studio behind Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge. In general, Harry shared that it was incredibly refreshing to be on an even playing field with passionate studios, with plenty of time to have the deep conversations that the hustle and bustle of conference meet-ups don’t often yield.

No doubt, the friendships and alliances forged at EVA will be long-lasting & important to the growth of each studio involved. One studio rep even memorably declared that now they’re going to be worried about the success of so many more games than before!

An Inspiring Location

It’s not often that a small indie studio from the North of Sweden gets an invite to attend somewhere as summery as Málaga & the magic setting was not lost on Harry. 

Being based in the 600-person village of Jörn, the jump to experiencing a vibrant city of nearly 600k people was especially eventful for him. That, and the relaxed mix of Andalusia culture, beaches, and tapas cuisine afforded Harry with waves of renewed inspiration to bring back to the North.

Given that he’s developing a cooking game, Harry especially took delight in trying out all the local food specialities endemic to the region! Maybe the dining experiences will even directly inform upcoming Pawsta content.

EVA is a Creative Europe project that Arctic Game Skellefteå is running together with SpielFabrique and Polo Nacional de Contenidos Digitales de Málaga. Big thanks goes to Mattes Lindner, Olympe Challlot, Thierry Baujard, and Trevin York for expertly leading & organising the event in Málaga.

//Written By Harry Heath