Hendrik Lesser

Funding, Education, Networking, Creativity – how Europe’s structural games support creates opportunities and allows game makers to take creative risks

Video games have evolved dramatically over the last decades, and so has their cultural acceptance. Gone are the days when gaming was viewed as a waste of time or even dangerous – today, our industry is widely accepted as a highly popular means of entertainment. This change in perception has led to several European-wide as well as national funding schemes and other initiatives in terms of education and perception which offer lots of opportunities. The talk will give insight into what these schemes have to offer and how their structural support has already enabled a broad variety of highly creative projects that celebrate European diversity and stand out from the crowd.

Bio:

Hendrik Lesser is CEO of the international production house remote control productions, which he founded in 2005. Today, rcp holds offices in Germany, Finland and Romania. Hendrik is also elected President of the EGDF, the European Games Developer Federation which is committed to the stimulation and development of a stable, vibrant and creative European games development. Over the last decade, Hendrik has been gradually building a network of development studios throughout Europe, which he has picked up at an early stage and developed into what they are today. The developer family now consists of more than a dozen companies in Germany, Austria, Finland and Romania. Occasionally, Hendrik is also still active as Executive Producer working on the high-level content of select games, like the global mobile RPG hit Angry Birds Epic or the story-driven Sci-Fi RTS Drone Swarm.