We’re delighted to share that the Tentacle Zone Incubator, a venture by Payload Studios, has won a Diversity Champions award at the first ever MCV / Develop IRL event! IRL welcomed people from across the industry for an evening of networking and to applaud the efforts that have been made by so many over the last year. The evening was a much-needed opportunity for games industry folk to get together and reconnect. 

The awards segment of the event shone a light on the contributions to society made by individuals and initiatives during the pandemic. Categories included Accessibility Hero, Community Visionaries and New Impacts. It was inspiring to see such worthy winners including friends of the Tentacle Zone family like Cinzia Musio from Splash Damage and Anisa Sanusi from LimitBreak.

Tentacle Zone’s win in the Diversity Champions category recognises the impact of the Incubator Programme which launched earlier this year. The initiative focuses on nurturing and growing indie studios which have founders who are from backgrounds underrepresented in the games industry.

During the four month programme, 12 founders who made up the 2021 cohort were able to benefit from mentoring, networking and technical know-how from experienced industry pros. All with the aim of helping their businesses grow and flourish. 

We’d also like to congratulate Tentacle Zone residents Marvelous Games who collected an award in the CSR Initiatives category. The award was in recognition of their campaign to help save one of the UK’s rarest species, the pine hoverfly. Thanks to Marvelous and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland the critically endangered pollinator has come back from extinction. It’s an astonishing achievement and we’d urge you to read all about it. Go team!

Although it’s now wrapped up for this year, there are plans for the Incubator Programme to return in 2022. If you run a studio which you think could benefit from taking part then keep your eyes peeled for applications opening early next year. Sign up for the Tentacle Zone newsletter (at the bottom of this page) and you’ll receive an email as soon as applications open. Got a question about Tentacle Zone or the incubator? Get in touch.