UK Games Fund — Prototype Fund

What it is

Grants of up to £100,000 for UK-registered games studios with 1–49 employees to build a prototype of an own-IP game — the grant can cover at most 50% of the remaining project budget. Expressions of Interest are currently paused and will reopen; the next funded work window starts 1 October 2026.

⚠️ ingest normalisation 2026-08-21: games-only fund — heavy confirmed-games preferred rule added (wizard has no games question yet, so unconfirmed tech/creative businesses honestly score ~58%, never 100%). Verified 2026-08-21 on ukgamesfund.com/prototype-fund: 'Expressions of Interest are now paused' but 'will reopen again soon' — hence between_rounds with rolling:true/deadline:null per seed convention. Next round timeline on the page: funded work starts 1 Oct 2026, project completion by 31 Mar 2027, interviews autumn 2026. Grant up to £100,000, no more than 50% of the remaining project budget, monthly claims generally capped at £20,000 with a minimum of 3 claims. Funder-stated eligibility the engine cannot fully express: UK company registered at Companies House for at least 10 weeks, existing PAYE registration, own-IP projects only, demonstrated professional game development experience, clear path to commercial sustainability; application is a 2-minute pitch video plus written form. DCMS-backed, delivered by UK Games Talent and Finance CIC. Note for merge: the seed already contains slug 'uk-games-fund' — likely the same parent fund; dedupe/reconcile at ingest.