Games Lift: Good Ideas for a Year 2025

Gamecity Hamburg's September 15, 2025 recap covers the kickoff event for the 2025 cohort of its Games Lift Incubator, now more than five years old. Held at SPACE Hamburg, the same venue as previous editions, the gathering brought together the participating teams, Gamecity staff, all five program mentors, and numerous alumni. The central message is that the program aims less to guide developers through a single funding cycle than to embed them in a growing regional network, with many attendees already acquainted through university or earlier projects.

Five projects were presented. "The Wrong Horse," from illustrators Vincent Will and Sharon Sacks, is a concept-stage crime adventure in which players act as a journalist investigating a jockey's death at a racetrack. "Phasmopass," by the trio Curio Compass, is a roguelike strategy game with turn-based volleyball matches set in the afterlife city of Limbo. Solo developer Leif Gutowski's "Encaged and Ungraded" is an anomaly-horror game about authenticating possibly cursed trading cards, with a focus on showcasing multiple artists' illustrations.

The remaining two projects are further along or more genre-defined. Distant Blue's "Fading Skies" is a PS2-inspired action-adventure that combines old-school platforming with modern action and follows a young woman and her magical dragon. The duo completed a Kickstarter campaign in 2024 and is aiming for the finish line with program support. Calluna Games' untitled "Project Slimepot" is a four-person "hack'n'snack" title built around a Slay, Cook, Serve loop in which players defeat dungeon creatures and prepare them for tavern customers.

Related news items appended to the page indicate the 2026 Games Lift offers five teams 15,000 euros each, a 1,000-euro coaching budget, a three-month workshop phase, individual mentoring, and an international industry event trip, with applications open from April 27 to June 1.