The 12-week Indie Ignition Accelerator program at Bow Valley College is aimed at helping digital creatives grow the gaming industry in Alberta.

Since it started in September, 20 teams of entrepreneurs have attended weekly sessions with experts in the game development and marketing fields, helping tighten their focus and identify what they don’t yet know.

“It's not about being told what you want to hear. It's literally: This works, this doesn't work,’” says Kerry Sharples, an accelerator participant and co-founder of the educational game company Playtheos.  “It's a good thing when you actually find a session where you don't agree with them, cool, so you know your direction.”

The 12-week program awards out cash prizes for the top three company pitches, following a competition on November 20^th at Platform Calgary. The seed money prizes are $12-thousand, $10-thousand and $8,000 each.

“Calgary is a powder keg of game development”

Michael Lohaus is a Bow Valley College instructor and game developer and one of the expert voices behind Indie Ignition. He says salary is the single highest expense in game development, and while winning the pitch competition won’t buy a room full of animation modelers or programmers, it does give the people behind the ideas a better chance to attract investment.

“Calgary is a powder keg of game development,” Lohaus says. “Something is going to blow up here. It’s just a matter of time and opportunity.”

Playtheos is still a long way from market, but the team behind it believes they’ve found a way to make somewhat boring – but important – clerical tasks into game play that is interesting enough players will want to play – and not just because it’s homework.

“I hate to say this, but have you ever played educational games? You want to talk to me about all the fun, right? No, no, you don't! They're so boring!” says Kerry Sharples, who started her career as a hospital unit clerk on her way to being a trauma nurse for 12 years. “I mean, do you learn? Probably. You have some takeaway, like, a little bit, but they're boring and they're dry, and it's more like a chore,” she says.

Sharples, who has a master’s degree in learning and technology, says she was frustrated trying to find online education products that were engaging and also met curriculum needs.

But in Feline Frenzy, players will complete a stage where they can orient themselves in a realistic vet clinic, before delivering the correct forms and medications to complete each level and earn badges – those badges represent completed curriculum.

Later levels include facing a room full of angry cats – using the lessons learned along the way to get them back into their cages, without getting scratched to pieces.

Another participant, EarthMMO, has a functioning game and a revenue stream – using augmented reality to create real world communities that incorporate fantasy storylines. Part of their business model uses real brick and mortar businesses as virtual storefront stops – driving foot traffic and generating revenue for the game.

The Big Rock Crystals, Minerals and Fossils shop told us they had their most profitable day ever by 32 and a half percent on the day of the event,” says founder Thomas Vu. “So we know that this does work in driving people to these businesses.”

 “In September in Okotoks we had over 1,000 people show up for this two-day weekend event,” says EarthMMO co-founder Thomas Vu.  “We created 67 of these quests, which are sort of mini tasks that people can do around the event area. People dressed up. They came with their families.”

"We had the mayor of Okotoks involved in one of the side quests," says Vu. “She dressed up and players would go in and they would get judged for fictional fantasy crimes like ‘you've been found guilty of putting bubbles in the city fountains, so now you have to put floral wreaths on all the deer.”

“It's really fantastic, it's been a super helpful thing to be going through.”

Despite his relative youth, Thomas Vu had already developed and sold a gaming company when he got the idea for EarthMMO. The next morning he went to his employer and quit, determined to turn his newest idea into his newest success. He recruited a childhood friend, Rowan Sommerfeld as a co-founder to help with the business development.

“It’s an accelerator that's just designed for game development, which is interesting, because we are a tech startup at our core, but we're also game development studio, so we get a lot of info from both sides,” says Sommerfeld. “This accelerator doesn't treat it like just teaching you how to make games. They teach you how to do the business side as well.”

“It's really fantastic, it's been a super helpful thing to be going through.”

The Indie Ignition Accelerator also includes legal fees and incorporation costs for all participants that finish the program. The costs are covered by Scott Nicoll Law and the City of Calgary’s Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund (OCIF). Intake is underway for the next cohort, starting in 2025.

“The ultimate goal here is to grow the digital industry here in Calgary, to create not just jobs and opportunities, but a successful centre for creatives to thrive and innovate in a way that reaches the world,” says Bow Valley College instructor and accelerator coordinator Ryan Coutts.

“We’re close. We have the talent and the excitement. We just need to take that next step.”