Prototype Fund

Expressions of Interest now open for Round 21.

Application Update

Important Information

Expressions of Interest for Round 21 are now open. The link to start your EOI is at the bottom of this page. We strongly recommend EOI applicants read through the following information for info before starting their EOI as the criteria will be the same as Round 20 but the funding start date will differ (as set out in the EOI).

Invited applicants to Round 20 have been emailed directly, we advise all to carefully read through the guidance below. 

The following information is supplied for reference for Round 20 applicants specifically. Guidance for invited applicants to Round 21 will be shared in due course.

Established companies with a track record and a video game development project at an early stage can apply for grants up to £100,000.

How to Apply

If you have already registered (and once you register) on our grant application platform, you must use the same email address throughout the application and grant award process. It must be an email with daily monitoring and use. We will not chase applicants who do not respond where required via email.

When registering on the application platform, please ensure that you tick to accept all communications (if you have already registered and not opted in you will need to alter your preferences in your profile to accept broadcast emails, notification emails and notification SMS messages).

Eligible applicants are required to upload a 2-minute pitch video and submit a written form via our application platform.

Pitch videos must be no longer than 2 mins. Videos must be playable from a browser and no larger than 100MB. Game trailers are not accepted and we advise against ‘talking head’ style submissions (submissions where an individual simply monologues to camera with no game assets or information on show).

Your Suitability

For all Prototype Fund grants

We expect to see strong applications from development companies with the following attributes. Applicants should consider the following as a baseline regarding suitability for funding:

  • Your studio has active employees (minimum requirement is one) and is seeking growth with existing PAYE registration in place and in use.
  • You will have completed some early concept work and have either a proof-of-concept demo or other visual pre-production work, so that you can show your project in the best light with your pitch video.
  • Your team must have experience of professional game development, ideally with commercially released games.
  • Your studio has clear aspirations to become self-sustaining and your application will demonstrate how the business will be sustained before, during, and beyond the funded period.
  • You will have a clear idea of what your unique selling point or other market differentiator is – being able to communicate this clearly will help build confidence in your project.
  • You are building your community and can offer a clear commercial case for the project, with some momentum on socials and/or some prior success in social marketing.
  • You have a plan to build (or are building) an informed fanbase for your company and title, and could reasonably gain meaningful numbers of wish-lists. We want to see that this is not just a passion project.
  • Alongside the company founders, you may also have UK-based paid staff and/or UK-based contractors that are either in place or are ready to come on board quickly if you are successful – being able to describe the specific attributes of your team helps to prove your overall development capability.
  • You should have done your research and have a clear idea of what the next steps are beyond the grant – who you will approach to fund the remainder of the project, how you will handle publishing, etc.

For larger Prototype Fund grants over £50,000, we are keen to see applications with the following business attributes:

  • You will have a good founder group with creative, technical, and business coverage.
  • You should have access to industry expertise and can articulate how your experienced founders, employees, and contractors can help to accelerate and de-risk your business and process development.
  • You should have an actionable growth plan in place, with a serious commitment to growing your PAYE employee base.

Your funded project work (the funded portion of the project) should be able to start from 1st September 2026.

The criteria for all UK Games Fund programme funding routes are distinctly different. Even if you believe that you could make a case for more than one of them (either with the same or different IPs) we won’t consider them in parallel open rounds.

Content Fund or other applications by applicants that ignore this guidance will be deleted and only their Prototype Fund application will be considered.

FAQs

Desirable Traits

Your Business

Business:

  • You are an established SME with at least one employee and PAYE registration in place (typically 3 – 10+ individuals, including contractors where applicable).
  • You are not a solo developer working as a one-person studio with no plans to grow beyond that model, though you may be a founder with a solid plan in place for growing your sustainable company. Evidence should be provided at time of application.
  • Your business is already growing and you have plans to grow towards larger projects, recruiting UK-based talent to do so.
  • Your company has been founded by at least one individual who enjoys business, speaks the language of business and is pushing your studio forward.
  • You are working with inclusivity / diversity and supporting different voices (e.g. the BFI guidance).
  • Your business is not dependent on grant funding and can demonstrate it is developing into a financially sustainable enterprise.

Your Team

Team:

  • The founding team are in the early stages of development, with a recent commercially released game and/or one or more team members having recent commercially released games.
  • Your studio is on a growth trajectory with hiring employees and/or working with contractors.
  • The project your studio is applying with is its own-IP.
  • Your studio has access to an established business support network.
  • The development team is sufficiently resourced for the funded work to be carried out to maximum impact.

Your Project

Project:

  • You have a clear, evidenced and verified market opportunity, and you can demonstrate how you are going to ‘stand up to’ and ‘stand out from’ any competitors.
  • Your project has received positive audience feedback and confirmation from socials, games press, publishers, focus-groups, play testers, focus-testers, or public demonstration at games expos.
  • You have early interest from publishers and you have been asked to extend or improve on a prior demo with a real possibility of being signed.
  • The project is not wholly dependent on grant funding because you have other income streams / working capital / time resources.
  • The game will play a pivotal role in the business aspirations of the company.

Our funding focus is primarily on games for entertainment.

The Application Process

Eligible EOI applicants  will be invited to submit a full written application, including a video pitch upload soon. If you miss out on this round, there will be further opportunities to apply this year.

  • We strongly recommend that all applicants read through the information below before getting started.
  • The application process is your opportunity to share details of the project, the team, your planned route to market and potential commercial opportunities your project presents to your studio.
  • You will need to have your ITL code for reference in the written application (you can find that by clicking the button below the tabs).
  • Pitch videos must not be game trailers and max file size is 100MB.

Criteria & other key details

Criteria

Eligible applicants must meet the following criteria:

  • Applications will only be accepted from existing UK-based companies that have been registered with Companies House for at least 10 weeks prior to application. 
  • Applications will only be accepted from registered UK-based companies with  existing PAYE registration in place at time of application.
  • Applicant companies should have one or more employee but must have fewer than 50 employees.
  • The scale of development will be such that our grant will represent no more than 50% of the budget remaining for the ‘prototype creation project’ from the point we fund you (not the budget for the whole game).
  • Where an applicant has been funded previously and recently by any UK Games Fund programme, their application will be closely scrutinised by reviewers for clearly articulated and evidenced impact of past grant support.
  • Applicants cannot be awarded more than one grant from any UK Games Fund programme within a financial year (6th April to 5th April the following year).
  • Your project must not include gambling elements or mechanisms which could be perceived as such, or any content that we deem to be potentially reputationally damaging (solely at our discretion).
  • Games associated with emergent business models with little evidence of success are unlikely to be funded until that evidence base can be demonstrated. For more context, see our news article here.
  • Your project can already be in development, although we don’t support projects that have already fully launched, and do not fund work carried out prior to the grant being offered.
  • Projects following an open-development model with a live build available in a pre-release form will still be considered (but typically we don’t fund pure DLC development for a title already launched).
  • Successful applicants must be able to clearly demonstrate a plan for growth and positive improvement as a result of UKGF support; this could be through new PAYE employees or co-development with freelancers/other companies as contractors. See our FAQ for more details.

Applicants give us authorisation to undertake credit and other due diligence checks.

Grant Value

The maximum grant we are offering is £100,000 for approved employment costs of UK-based employees and UK-based contractors paid from 1st September 2026.

Monthly claims will generally be capped at £15,000 and a minimum of 3 claims, but successful applicants can use their own resources above and beyond that if necessary.

Pitch Video

Eligible applicants are asked to upload a short (max 2 mins) pitch video as part of the full application.

The pitch video is your opportunity to tell us about your development team (including any relevant experience), your game (show us any gameplay/concept art), your planned route to market, and your audience.

Before uploading your pitch video, we recommend you consider the following:

  • The video is your chance to supplement the information you’ve supplied in your written form, but it is never a substitute.
  • While the pitch video is an important part of the application, we’re not looking for high production quality output.
  • We advise against using a ‘talking head’ approach (a fixed shot of a person monologuing to camera with no game assets or other information on show) and we will not accept game trailers. Don’t just send us a generic pitch video; we want to see a tailored pitch.
  • Max length is 2 minutes – anything longer will not be considered as part of the panel’s review.

If you’re having problems putting a pitch video together, our application platform has space for you to tell us why.

Key Dates

Expressions of Interest now open.

  • Interviews in summer 2026.
  • Funded work can begin from 1st September 2026 and must be complete by 31st January 2027.

Eligible Costs

If awarded a grant from the UK Games Fund, portfolio companies may only claim for approved employment costs for UK-based employees and UK-based contractors declared on your application form, who are also working in the UK while funded.

As our objective is to fund development/content work that puts direct value into your project, you may only claim for roles that primarily focus on project development (programming, art, production, etc.) or content creation (e.g., voiceover recording or game writing). We don’t fund dedicated roles in marketing, social marketing, lawyers, accountants, business development, testing, etc. You can of course pay for roles we don’t cover with your own funds.

For the avoidance of doubt that means:

  • Gross pay costs of UK-domiciled employees paid through PAYE.
  • Employer’s NI costs of UK domiciled employees paid through PAYE.
  • UK-domiciled contractor invoices exclusive of VAT (if you aren’t VAT registered you can claim the VAT element subject to agreeing with us).
  • No costs of any other nature will be approved. Including such costs in your application for grant money could result in negative scoring in your application.

You must be ready to start work on your funded project with one month (4 weeks) of issue of a formal Offer of Grant Letter from the UK Games Fund.

Community Contribution

Our grants are non-repayable. Provided all grant conditions are met during and after the project, cash repayment of grant will not be required.

However, we do ask that in acceptance of the grant that your company commit to contribute senior-staff time as a mentor, judge, reviewer or speaker in support of your peers at a later, mutually convenient date. This time contribution will be set out in any Offer of Grant letter to successful applicants. Where travel is involved your travel expenses will be met in accordance with our reimbursement policies in force at the time.

In addition, all executive directors of funded companies will be expected to make a public pledge to re-invest a fair and reasonable proportion of any significant returns in talent / IP development for the UK games ecosystem via the UK Games Fund on a discretionary basis, should their company benefit disproportionately as a result of this support.

Find your ITL Code

Find out which code you will need to use in your application form here.

ITL Code

Successful Applicants

If successful, you will be required to confirm that you can provide the following:

  • Your HMRC PAYE registration details and employer reference number – there will be no exceptions from this requirement.
  • Assurance that for any work on the funded project directors will pay themselves via PAYE (no dividends, director’s loan repayments, connected contractor invoices etc accepted).
  • A valid State Subsidy declaration in a form we’ll provide, taking into account the scale of funding applied for. The declaration will require you to confirm that other sources of public funding won’t breach your limit for receiving this when combined with a grant from us.
  • All Directors of funded companies will need to verify their identity on Yoti.
  • We may require you to complete an IP Housekeeping Audit (we’ll show you how).
  • Company profile information and data to help build a detailed picture of the games development sector in the UK.
  • You will need at least 6 weeks of working capital to enable you to draw down the grant, which must be claimed monthly after incurring and defraying your costs. Grant claims are paid in arrears monthly.

You should only apply if you can provide the above.

You must be ready to start work on your funded project with one month (4 weeks) of issue of a formal Offer Letter of Grant from the UK Games Fund.

FAQS

If you’ve got any further questions, please refer to our FAQs.

Read FAQs

Unsuccessful applicants

No correspondence will be entered into and there is no appeal.

In some cases, we may suggest re-applying to future funding calls after you’ve addressed highlighted issues (in which case we’ll give some general guidance at the time of application). 

Expression of Interest in Round 21