How does a creative industry thriving on young talents survive in a crisis? By shaping a resilient and powerful support ecosystem! The BSG Go! Project trailblazes empowering solutions for the game industry.

BSG-Go! is set against the backdrop of the gaming industry's potential beyond mere entertainment and linked to the renewed emphasis on resilience in the face of socioeconomic vulnerabilities highlighted by the recent pandemic. Despite the economic downturn affecting the creative industries, the game industry exemplifies resilience during the pandemic in terms of revenue, albeit as a mixed blessing. The industry's most obvious „weakness“ is its dependence on a continuous influx of new talent, which relies on a vibrant community and an active support environment. Young developers and small teams heavily hinge on in-person interactions, especially at large events like conferences, game jams, and meet-ups. Consequently, while major players thrived during the pandemic, young entrepreneurs and smaller teams suffered significant setbacks.

The critical question is: how do we address this fragility?

The BSG Go! consortium believes that bolstering individuals and organisations that offer support and foster community connections is essential for enhancing the resilience of young talents and entrepreneurs, including the "Indies" of the industry. Therefore, the project's overarching strategy is to create a robust and resilient game development support ecosystem.

This involves positioning support entities—such as mentors, hubs, incubators, and network organisations—as central elements and establishing strong connections with the key actors they rely on: senior developers, game investors, public authorities, hub managers, mentors, and community leaders. This "support ecosystem" cannot thrive in isolation; many regional support systems (hubs) currently operate in silos. These hubs must not only become resilient themselves but also find ways to better foster resilience within their young teams.

Not surprisingly, resilience is now about transformation rather than a return to “normal”. The project enables this transformation by implementing 19 different pilots as strategic actions bundled into 4 transferable solutions/outputs.

• Solution 1: Toolbox for a resilient game investor engagement: Enhance young companies' visibility to investors and publishers, improving their chances of securing early-stage capital despite crises, while facilitating talent discovery through pre-selection curation and advanced risk assessment tools.
• Solution 2: Toolbox for resilient peer2peer environments: Strengthen the support ecosystem through Peer2Peer learning by leveraging knowledge sharing inherent in the game industry and promoting mentor-mentor and investor-investor exchange of knowledge and experiences.
• Solution 3: Toolbox for resilient work and business relations: Advise young entrepreneurs on team structure and business operations, fostering leadership competences, and develop resilient business relations through tested hybrid practices and effective engagement with team members.
• Solution 4: Toolbox for a forward-looking game business: Equip companies for future challenges with innovative business support tools and broadened business plans, while embracing SDG and cross-sectoral collaboration to enhance preparedness, innovation, and flexibility
  

The change resulting from the possible outcomes includes enhanced resilience and innovation capacity within the gaming industry, broader recognition of games as powerful tools for communication and societal impact, and improved collaboration and knowledge sharing between the gaming industry and other sectors. Solutions for the game industry developed within BSG-Go! serve as a role model and will work as well for other industries. in particular CCI. Interreg’s role in the project is pivotal, providing support and funding for the pilots and facilitating collaboration across borders and industries.