12 teams became winners of the Useful Games Accelerator
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On December 11, the pitch for the finalists of the Useful Games Accelerator took place at the VK office. Experts selected 28 teams from 18 regions that presented educational games in various genres: from simulators and point & click to slashers and co-op games.

We publish the names of the winners of the Accelerator in different nominations:

Winner of the "VK Play Choice" nomination

— the puzzle D.I.V.O. from the team Shiza GAMES: Andrey Nasonkin, Maxim Ilchenko, Ekaterina Karaseva, Konstantin Platoch, Alexander Markov, Antonina Goskova, Anastasia Streltsova, Maxim Rolyshchikov, Viktoria Kodintseva.

The project will receive a feature on VK Play.

Winner of the "Berluga Choice" nomination

— a point-and-click quest "World, Chemistry!" from the team "Nakhimichili": Darya Girfanova.

The game will be promoted at NKFP "Berluga" events and in school technology clubs.

Winner of the "Ursula's Choice" nomination

— a visual novel "Mendeleev's Secret" from the team "Women in a Cube": Yulia Bayborina, Yesenia Ushakova, Anna Vishnyakova, Timofey Zemtsev.

The authors will be helped to create and publish an art book based on the game.

Winners of the "Tavros Group Choice" nomination

The agricultural holding "Tavros" chose nine best simulators. Their authors will receive funding for game improvements.

The total prize fund for the nomination amounted to 2.7 million rubles.

Nomination "Happy Pig":

  • 1st place — "Magnificent Factory", team Micro Team Games: Pavel Rudakov, Pavel Frolov.
  • 2nd place — "TechnoPigFarm", team "TechnoGameMakers": Anna Girfanova.
  • 3rd place — "HryuCraft", team DiDe: Danil Gvizdon, Dinara Garfina.

Nomination "Bird Factory":

  • 1st place — "Cosmic Bird Factory", team Jetcode: Andrey Nilov, Andrey Kireev, Timofey Krivtsov, Maxim Bolshakov, Ekaterina Sumenkova, Evgeny Afanasyev.
  • 2nd place — "Good Factory", team "Rurikovich": Oleg Kildyushov, Olga Kuleshova.
  • 3rd place — Yarkovo farm, team "Pumpkin Raf": Mikhail Doronin, Alexander Leontyev, Anna Sershova.

Nomination "Sugar Factory":

  • 1st place — "Sugar Factory Simulator", team "One in the Field Indie Developer": Yaroslav Novikov.
  • 2nd place — "Sugar Sky", team teanochk: Elizaveta Lancheva.
  • 3rd place — CosmoParty, team "Negative": Ekaterina Nikolaeva, Anna Nikolaeva, Vyacheslav Biryukov.

A total of 82 applications were submitted to the accelerator from developers across 50 regions. The teams that reached the finals successfully passed all stages: from online selection and game jams to completing challenges in the educational modules of the acceleration program.

Projects of Participants

Teams created games of various genres — production simulators, arcades, visual novels, strategies, metroidvanias, puzzles, and slashers. Each project carries an educational function. Developers prepared useful games on many topics: chemistry, art history, cryptography, programming, robotics, agrotechnologies, and more.

"For the second year in a row, we are developing a community of indie developers around the theme of useful games and see how interest is growing; more and more young teams are ready to create not just interesting games, but also imbue them with an educational mission – especially when there is a real client willing to invest in the development of useful games," noted Dmitry Zemtsov, Vice-Rector of HSE University, Secretary of the Organizing Committee of the National Technological Olympiad, and leader of the working group of the NTI "Circle Movement".

What's Next

The winners of the accelerator will continue working on their games to release them on Russian platforms. Ahead are internships, presentations at gaming events, and new projects.

You can follow the development of projects and playtest them in the Games Library. Register or log in to the "Talent" platform, choose a game from the library, play and leave your feedback.