our grant & accelerator
Are you building a video game studio with a co-operative model? Looking for understanding that you, as an underrepresented founder in the industry, run up against barriers, biases, and bullshit? The Baby Ghosts Peer Accelerator could be for you!
What is Baby Ghosts?
Baby Ghosts and Gamma Space Collaborative Studio have teamed up to offer a grant of $25,000 in a two-part, six-month program of tailored mentorship with a community of game-making peers. We offer you the space and the tools to develop a studio that doesn’t need to adhere to inequitable systemic norms.
Apply
Our next program will start for 5 teams on November 1, 2023. Apply now!
Baby Ghosts FAQ
Am I Ready to Apply?
The Baby Ghosts Peer Accelerator program is a time to slow down and consider the future of your studio before you start chasing funding opportunities. That may sound counterintuitive, but we help you to accelerate your value to you from the inside out so that others don’t accelerate your value to them from the outside in.
Being able to take advantage of your time in the program is the most important thing, but this can be a deep journey with other considerations. After checking out the FAQs we have, here are some questions to ask yourself (and your team) if you’re thinking of applying:
- Am I ready to really think about my studio’s development as seriously as the project my studio is developing?
- Do I have the time and focus to commit to the schedules and activities listed above?
- Am I comfortable with having difficult conversations around goals and values with my team and facilitators?
- Do I have a support system in place of friends, family, or colleagues that have my back if team alignment drifts?
- Can I communicate learning style preferences and access needs comfortably in English?
Eligibility
- You are based in Canada.
- You are a member of an underrepresented group in the video game industry.
- You are a member of a team of at least two people.
- You are building a video game studio with a co-operative model.
What We Look For
- Social impact
- Team alignment
- Focus on studio development
- Willingness to be in community
“The Baby Ghosts program not only gave my studio financial security for this year, it also gave me access to an inspiring and inclusive community of peers, collaborators and mentors.”
- Sam Ramsay, Cheekynauts Entertainment
“Receiving the Baby Ghosts grant and being connected with the Weird Ghosts community was a dream come true. I was granted the resources and opportunity to take my project STREET UNI X to the next level through some months of full-time development focus after years of only working on the project in my off time between day jobs.”
- daffodil, daffodil & friends
Program Timeline
Here’s how your time as a Baby Ghost breaks down across two phases:
Stage 1
Months 1-2
- Alignment of values + goals: We work together to synchronize our shared values.
- Studio development: Focus on organizational structure, team, capacities, resources, and value flow.
- Financial support: $5,000
- Three set sessions: These include community sharing, identifying problems, and goal alignment.
- Custom sessions plan: Weekly written check-ins using your studio Slack channel, as well as facilitated meetings to address your pain points.
Self-assessment
At the conclusion of Stage 1
- Self-evaluation of Stage 1
- Is your team in alignment for continuing the program?
- Can your studio clearly speak to the nature of its work?
- Draft plan for Stage 2 with achievable milestones
- What form will your studio work take?
- What impact will the outcomes of your work have?
- Collective evaluation: Your team consults with Weird Ghosts and Gamma Space regarding readiness for Phase 2.
Stage 2
Months 3-6
- Storytelling training: Support for narrative design, game design, art development, writing, and addressing any pain points in your process along the way.
- Ongoing studio development and consolidation community support: Peer mentorship with Gamma Space founders and members, for skill development and potential skill sharing.
- Financial support: $20,000
- Goals: The goals of the accelerator’s second phase include the implementation of a production process, a pitch, and a plan for the next phase of your studio and project following graduation from the Baby Ghost program.
Facilitators
datejie green (pronoun fluid) is a queer cis Jamaican-Canadian woman based in Tkaronto/Toronto and Kingston, Jamaica. A journalist, audio engineer, collective organizer, teacher, independent scholar and lover of archives, datejie’s journey traverses decolonial feminist witnessing, recovery and storytelling in five languages from Turtle Island to Africa to the Caribbean. Anticipating the digital convergence of news, archives and interactivity, datejie has brought her community dev ethic and her news innovation, Descendancy: Diasporic African Agency, to incubate with and through the Gamma Space.
kaitlyn dougon (they/them) is a queer white settler artist based in Tkaronto/Toronto. They earned their degree in radio and TV broadcasting but found their way into video game production with the goal of developing alongside other indie devs while also redefining our relationship to value, capital and community in ways that can generate stability and sustainability. A lot of their time is dedicated to thinking about world-building, story crafting, process and structure, world and art history and classism, but you’ll typically find them creating 3D models that bring their worlds to life.
bryan depuy (they/them) is a queer white settler artist based in Tkaronto/Toronto. from a background of audio engineering, community activism, tech support, and weird creative tangents, they somehow arrived at video games, where they now spend a good deal of time. they are proud to work with gamma space & weird ghosts nurturing practices of collective care, anti-capitalism, and political accountability.
Henry Faber (he/him) is a cis het white settler digital producer, community developer, and accessible arts space advocate based in Tkaronto/Toronto. He has worked for over 25 years to facilitate more equitable and inclusive relationships between artists, technology, and processes. Henry co-founded Gamma Space as a not-for-profit coworking space for indie game makers in 2012. The pandemic found him rethinking how communities care for and work together. Since 2020 he has been helping transform Gamma Space into a co-op that actively engages with its values.
