Big win for London based gaming company
With the premise of being London's premier business plan competition, VenturePrize London closed off Tuesday, February 10, with the newest game development company in London taking home the grand prize, Antic Entertainment.
VenturePrize kicked off in September with over $45,000 in cash and prizes to be won with new London-based ventures and businesses that have been running for less than two years being eligible for entry.
Antic's business plan was up against four other local finalists at the ceremonies Tuesday night at the London Convention Centre: Braise Food & Wine, Fortress Data Vaulting, Kosuma Healthy Stuff and Vinestein. With their business plan proving to be the best, we caught up with Antic Entertainment's CEO Fredrik Liliegren to ask about the win and what Antic Entertainment is about.
Interrobang: What is Antic Entertainment?
Liliegren: Antic Entertainment is a fairly new company, started in June 2008. It was started by three very veteran developers: myself, with over 18 years of game development experience; Mark Mikulec, our Chief Technology Officer with 12-13 years experience; and Jeff Evans, with eight years experience with primarily experience in Art & Design.
Interrobang: How did you win Venture Prize?
Liliegren: I don't know exactly what made us win, but it was an interesting competition. As we are a new company we obviously needed to get a business plan in place that can outline what it is we want to do, how we're going to do it, and how we're going to be successful. So we found this was a good way to have other people look at our business plan and see if it held up, and as people know now we were actually sure enough the winner.
Interrobang: What can you tell us about your business plan?
Liliegren: What Antic Entertainment is about is to create quick, easy to access and free entertainment. What we do is we develop primarily games software for the internet web browser that is going to be using micro-transactions for monetization.
Interrobang: Of the $45,000 that was up for grabs at VenturePrize, what did Antic Entertainment win?
Liliegren: We actually won $30,000, which comprised of $10,000 in cash prizes and $20,000 of in-kind contributions from a number of different local companies.
Interrobang: How does it feel to win?
Liliegren: Oh it feels fantastic! I mean it was a tough competition, five really interesting finalists all within different areas that all had strong ideas, and we hope they're all going to be successful, but obviously coming out on top felt really good.
Interrobang: How did you initially get involved with Venture Prize?
Liliegren: We saw ads in a Scotia Bank branch and we decided that since we were writing a business plan anyway, we might as well enter it into this competition to potentially get some additional funding.
Antic Entertainment is already working on their first title and will be using their winnings to help its development. As well, Antic is also currently hiring programmers with a minimum of three years experience. Although current Fanshawe programming students may not fulfill the requirements for those positions, which are further detailed on Antic's website, www.anticentertainment.com, Antic is also welcome to taking inquires about internships and co-op programs at local colleges and universities.
This year's VenturePrize London was the inaugural year of the event. For more information about VenturePrize you can check out www.ventureprizelondon.com.
Interrobang readers can look forward to a series of more articles focused on the digital games industry in London. Did you know in 2006 Ontario's digital games industry made over $70 million? London alone makes up 13 per cent of Ontario's industry, according to a government funded 2008 report.
VenturePrize kicked off in September with over $45,000 in cash and prizes to be won with new London-based ventures and businesses that have been running for less than two years being eligible for entry.
Antic's business plan was up against four other local finalists at the ceremonies Tuesday night at the London Convention Centre: Braise Food & Wine, Fortress Data Vaulting, Kosuma Healthy Stuff and Vinestein. With their business plan proving to be the best, we caught up with Antic Entertainment's CEO Fredrik Liliegren to ask about the win and what Antic Entertainment is about.
Interrobang: What is Antic Entertainment?
Liliegren: Antic Entertainment is a fairly new company, started in June 2008. It was started by three very veteran developers: myself, with over 18 years of game development experience; Mark Mikulec, our Chief Technology Officer with 12-13 years experience; and Jeff Evans, with eight years experience with primarily experience in Art & Design.
Interrobang: How did you win Venture Prize?
Liliegren: I don't know exactly what made us win, but it was an interesting competition. As we are a new company we obviously needed to get a business plan in place that can outline what it is we want to do, how we're going to do it, and how we're going to be successful. So we found this was a good way to have other people look at our business plan and see if it held up, and as people know now we were actually sure enough the winner.
Interrobang: What can you tell us about your business plan?
Liliegren: What Antic Entertainment is about is to create quick, easy to access and free entertainment. What we do is we develop primarily games software for the internet web browser that is going to be using micro-transactions for monetization.
Interrobang: Of the $45,000 that was up for grabs at VenturePrize, what did Antic Entertainment win?
Liliegren: We actually won $30,000, which comprised of $10,000 in cash prizes and $20,000 of in-kind contributions from a number of different local companies.
Interrobang: How does it feel to win?
Liliegren: Oh it feels fantastic! I mean it was a tough competition, five really interesting finalists all within different areas that all had strong ideas, and we hope they're all going to be successful, but obviously coming out on top felt really good.
Interrobang: How did you initially get involved with Venture Prize?
Liliegren: We saw ads in a Scotia Bank branch and we decided that since we were writing a business plan anyway, we might as well enter it into this competition to potentially get some additional funding.
Antic Entertainment is already working on their first title and will be using their winnings to help its development. As well, Antic is also currently hiring programmers with a minimum of three years experience. Although current Fanshawe programming students may not fulfill the requirements for those positions, which are further detailed on Antic's website, www.anticentertainment.com, Antic is also welcome to taking inquires about internships and co-op programs at local colleges and universities.
This year's VenturePrize London was the inaugural year of the event. For more information about VenturePrize you can check out www.ventureprizelondon.com.
Interrobang readers can look forward to a series of more articles focused on the digital games industry in London. Did you know in 2006 Ontario's digital games industry made over $70 million? London alone makes up 13 per cent of Ontario's industry, according to a government funded 2008 report.
