Games Lift 2025: Hamburg incubator once again supports five teams
The Games Lift Incubator, which supports five teams with a one-year workshop and mentoring programme, input from international industry experts and 15,000 euros in funding, will start for the sixth time on 8 September.
More applications than ever this year
The programme for the development of video games organised by Gamecity Hamburg on behalf of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg is unique in its form in Germany. Among other things, more than 30 experts provide the games projects with professional and targeted support and the teams will travel together to an international industry event. In 2025, a total of 43 teams and solo developers applied to take part in the Games Lift Incubator - more than twice as many as in previous years. A five-member award committee decided in favour of these projects:
The Wrong Horse by Sharon Sacks & Vincent Will
Encaged and Ungraded by Leif Gutowski
Fading Skies by Distant Blue
Phasmopass by Curio Compass
Project: Slimepot by Calluna Games
The incubator programme addresses the individual needs of the developers with extensive workshops, mentoring and coaching content. After completing the three-month workshop programme, the teams will present their results to a broad audience at a public pitch in December 2025. This will be followed by the second phase of the incubator, which will run until the end of August 2026. In this phase, selected mentors will work intensively with the teams and support them throughout the entire period in regular, individual sessions according to their needs.
