Creative Europe Media: 2.9 Million Euros Funding for Tools From the Game Industry

In the current ‘Innovative Tools and Business Models’ funding line, 8.5 million euros are given to ten companies across Europe. 2.915 million euros are going to tools and innovations from the German games and film industry: To Codecks, K5 Media & Investments and Malao.

With the ‘Innovative Tools and Business Models’ funding line, Creative Europe Media is supporting European technologies and IT tools that contribute to increasing competitiveness, sustainability or the use of AI for the creative industries with a total of 8.5 million euros.

Three of the ten funded projects come from Germany, two of them directly involved in the game industry.

The highest funding amount of 1.29 million euros goes to Illumina Twin, the project by the Munich-based media group K5 Media & Investments GmbH, which combines expertise in the film and gaming sector to tackle the topic of ‘lighting in virtual productions’. “With our project, we are linking the lighting situation in the real and virtual worlds,” says CEO Oliver Simon. “This simplifies work on set and, above all, post-production, enabling significant cost savings while maximising creative freedom. In the short and medium term, we will see major changes to traditional role models and processes on set thanks to technological innovations. Thanks to the funding from Creative Europe Media, we can tackle this topic holistically and set a European standard here.”

The funding line is also supporting Berlin-based Codecks and its project of the same name with 700,000 euros to further develop a project management solution for game development. Codecks is the project of Maschinen-Mensch cofounder Riad Djemili: “With our playful approach, we want to make project management as accessible and entertaining as possible. It is important to us to strengthen European creators in the digital sector and support their successful participation in international competition,” he says.

Munich-based Malao GmbH will receive 925,000 euros for Spark, the third funded project from Germany. CEO Isobel Leigh: “With advances in artificial intelligence and game engine technology, the film and entertainment industry is facing its biggest transformation in 30 years. It's only a matter of time before every creative in the world will have the ability to produce a high-quality feature film, series or any type of intellectual property. This will create a new market worth 135 billion dollars. To capitalise on this potential, we are developing a tool for the next generation of creatives that combines human intuition and artificial intelligence: a ‘studio in your pocket’ that provides everything creatives need in one place to go from idea to successful realisation. Our project was recently recognised by Creative Europe Media as one of the most innovative tools in the field of new technologies.”