For young children, learning how to read is a crucial skill. Being able to read, piques their curiosity and makes it easier to gain knowledge by themselves, which is highly motivating to discover the world even more. While reading is key, it doesn’t come easy to everyone. Enter FONEMI (link in Dutch), a webapp for preschoolers to offer every child the smoothest reading start possible.
Developed by our proud member Bits of Love based on research of VIVES Hogeschool, the app playfully stimulates something called the phonemic awareness. That’s a crucial building block for learning how to read and write. Before primary school, toddlers must learn to recognise sounds in words, split words into sounds, and replace sounds in words. Kindergarten teachers train this classically, but they often don’t have time to provide individual support for every child.
FONEMI helps them with a series of playful exercises, adjusted to the level (there’s four difficulty levels) of each child. The application is coupled to a powerful Learning Management System, so teachers are able to easily monitor the progress of their children and adjust where necessary. Currently developed for use in the third kindergarten, the project aims to expand to both second kindergarten and first grade in the future.
Good news, everyone! Midnight Protocol, the hacking RPG created by our proud member and longtime supporter LuGus Studios and game designer Sam Agten, has been nominated for an award at the prestigious Independent Game Festival. After Tale of Tale’s Luxuria Superbia in 2014, it’s only the second time a Belgian game has achieved this.
Quite a feat if you consider that over 400 video games entered this year’s competition, yet it’s not too hard to see how Midnight Protocol was able to hack their way into the hearts of the IGF judges. With its distinctive keyboard controls and smart storytelling, the game was designed to be the ultimate hacking power fantasy, and the developers executed that vision to perfection.
In the category Excellence for Design, which celebrates video games that showcase inventive game design and novel ways of player interaction, they are up against Inscryption, Unpacking, Overboard!, Strange Horticulture, and Webbed. LuGus co-founder Kevin Haelterman is thrilled with the nomination, but keeps both feet on the ground: “Simply being nominated for an IGF is a mean feat, but to win against some of these powerhouses may be a bridge too far.”
Everyone loves a good underdog, though! The winners will be announced at the IGF award ceremony which takes place on 23rd of March during GDC in San Francisco. May the best hacking mechanic win!
Well hello there 2022! We hope you’ve been able to charge your batteries over the holidays for what looks to be another wonderful year filled with Belgian video game goodness. There’s a couple of big releases on the horizon, but before you get hyped for those, you should check out Different Perspectives Art Games Festival.
All you need to know about Different Perspectives
A brand new art games festival at Het Bos in Antwerp (link in Dutch), encompassing various activities.
January 20-23 and January 28-30: Relive/Herleef is a free curated showcase of 10 autobiographical video games.
Each of the activities taking place under the Different Perspectives umbrella plays a unique role in supporting and helping to grow video games as an art form.
The curated selection of autobiographical video games Relive/Herleef offers nothing but deeply personal video game experiences that come straight from the heart of the creators. The titles were carefully selected by curator Pepijn Willekens to give new insights into what games can be, both in terms of content and form. It showcases topics such as mental health issues, war experiences, loss of loved ones, body image and eating disorders. But also positive experiences such as the value of peace, family and LGBTQ+ love are highlighted. Above all, the expo wants to show that video games are a unique art form, that’s open to gamers and non-gamers alike.
At the Networking Day (future) art game creators can meet, exchange experiences and collaborate. There’s talks on a wide variety of subjects and a speed pitch round where you can present your art game project or idea. You get the stage for five minutes and how you want to use those are completely up to you. Make sure to sign up here if you want to share your ideas.
Finally, you can put all that inspiration and everything you’ve learned to the ultimate test. During Global Game Jam Antwerp, you’ll team up with other creatives to create a video game in 48 hours. The theme is unveiled just before the start, so the best way to prepare is to arrive well-rested and with an open mind. A lot of succesful video games, such as last year’s indie hit Inscryption, have their origins in a game jam, so who knows you’ll work on the humble beginnings of the next big thing? And if you don’t, GGJ is still a great experience to make new friends and learn. Even when you’ve never created a video game, you’re more than welcome to join.
It’s hard to believe this is our final blog post of 2021 already. Somehow it feels like this year actually didn’t take place, just moments lost in time between vaccines, COVID-testing and consultation committees. However, looking back at everything that’s happened for this retrospective, it’s been a pretty good year for FLEGA and our sector after all.
While 2021 presented itself as the year of freedom, there wasn’t enough rope yet to make up for the unified BelgianGames GDC booth that fell through in 2020. Physical events slowly started to make a comeback after the summer (it felt great meeting everyone again at Unwrap!), but we took no risk and together with our partners set up a unique virtual Belgian Game Awards show. While this was a fun experiment, here’s hoping we get to do a live one when the BGA’s return in 2022.
A lot of big things happened for FLEGA near the end of the year. Signing a nice partnership with FIT was an important step in our history. It gives us the means to do even more and better things in the future. We also expanded our team with some awesome girl power starting in January.
So what are we doing for you in 2022?
Preparations for a new videogame action plan are in full swing. There’s no details yet, but we’re looking at a plan 2.0 that builds on the foundations of what we have now and it will evolve along with our ecosystem. We expect news on this from Minister of Media Dalle in March.
We continue to lobby on a national level (together with WALGA, gamesbrussels and VGFB) as well as an international level (together with EGDF and ISFE) to get more recognition and support for our sector and to raise our voice in different subject matters. For next year in particular, we’re consulting with our legal counsel on several important legal developments, such as the transposition of the European Copyright Directive and Digital Content Directive into national laws. We also closely monitor the proposed changes to the fiscal copyright remuneration system. These legal dossiers could have a massive impact on our sector.
It’s been a quiet year for tax shelter, but we keep pushing. So where are we at? We’re waiting for a new assembly of the Federal Commission of Finance to finally vote on the legal amendments required by Europe. Simultaneously, regional and federal governments are finalising the required cooperation agreement. When all this has been done, the law can come into effect, but (there’s always another but) there’s still some practical stuff to be figured out: who’ll take care of the submissions at the Department of Media, an info session needs to be set up to explain you how the system exactly works etc. We know this is taking long, but please, bear with us.
There’s better news from our friends at VAF|GAME. Our continued request for more structural VAF|GAME financing has paid off. In 2022, their budget will rise to €2,9 million (one year only as a result of European COVID relaunch measures) and from 2023 onwards, the budget will be structurally augmented from €1,7 million to €2,7 million. That’s great news and we urge all our Flemish and Brussels studios to submit their most ambitious projects to date. The next submission deadline is 25th of January. There will also be four calls this year instead of the regular three, with an extra call in March (more information to follow).
Finally, there are some wild plans on our 2022 sector roadmap that we can’t share with you just yet. Think of it as a holiday present that you just can’t open yet!
We’re fast approaching themagical number of 1000 blog posts, which we’ll reach somewhere next year. After all this time, we still take great pride in what we do and get tremendous satisfaction out of seeing our local game sector flourish. Even though we’re not directly involved with game creation, every success story, no matter how small or big, makes us feel like we were able to help out in some way. Thank you for letting us be a part of your journey.
While it wasn’t exactly the carefree year we all hoped to be and there’s cause for concern with omikron looming on the horizon, we hope 2022 isn’t a copy of the 2 previous years. We have a BelgianGames booth at GDC22 to get to, virus! In any case, we hope you all spend some quality and *deep sigh* safe holiday time with the people you love.
We’ll be sure to do the same and we’ll see you back on January 7th.
It’s been a pretty good 2021 for FLEGA. There’s no way to continue that work without the support of our valued FLEGA family members. So, if you appreciate what we do and want to (keep) enjoy(ing) the many benefits and services that come with the family membership, we’d love to welcome you (back) next year. Current members will automatically renew their membership in January. New applications are welcome over here.
All you need to know about FLEGA membership
You have a heart for our local video game ecosystem and you want to support us to help it flourish?
You’re not a game company? Supporting memberships are € 1.000 (VAT excl)
You are a game company? Basic memberships are € 200 (VAT excl). This includes member benefits, services and voting rights.
Want to get access to our press list on top of that? Premium memberships are € 400 (VAT excl)
You’re a freelancer working in video games? Freelance memberships are € 50 (VAT excl)
You’re a student or enthusiast? There’s a benefitless free membership just for you
Apply here for the membership of your choice (pending approval)
New are supporting memberships (€ 1.000/year VAT excl). These are ideal for companies that do have a heart for video games, but aren’t in the business themselves. Think advertising agencies, PR, marketing, influencers, legal firms, HR, events, but also banks, corporates and even SME’s. Supporting members have no voting rights or any other form of member benefit nor service. On top of our eternal gratitude, your company’s logo will be showcased on our home page (as well as in the members tab), so everyone can see you’re a proud supporter of our local video game ecosystem.
Companies that are active in video games (development studios, publishers, service provicers such as Q&A, middleware, localisation… and also accelerator/incubators, gamification companies, research departments, educational institutions…) have the choice of basic membership (€ 200/year VAT excl) or premium membership (€ 400/year VAT excl). Next to being written about on this very blog and exercise their voting rights, FLEGA members enjoy the following benefits and services:
discounts for many (inter)national trade fairs such as SETT, Nordic Game, GameForce and more
inclusion in our member directory
free use of our press list with over 120 relevant specialist and mainstream Flemish press contacts (premium only)
an exciting new service we will share shortly (don’t you just love surprises?)
If you’re working in video games as a freelancer and would like to be featured in our public directory, you can apply for a freelance membership (€ 50/year VAT excl). Finally, there’s also a free membership for students and enthusiasts.
You can apply here for the membership of your choice (all memberships have to be approved by the Board). Whether you’re a returning member or a fresh face, we’re more than happy to welcome you into the FLEGA family.
We’ve all been longing for the return to San Francisco and it should finally be happening in 2022 (covid forbid). There’s no better way to celebrate the revival of the physical GDC experience than CourageXL. Sign up through this link (password: belgiumrules) for a guaranteed spot (no curation) to showcase your video game at the long running showcase event organized by our Dutch colleagues. Belgian companies who are part of the Belgian Games booth pay € 50 (thanks FIT and AWEX!), other Belgian companies € 250. Deadline is 14th of February. Gentle reminder, that’s also Valentine’s Day 🙂
All you need to know about CourageXL
A non-curated guaranteed spot to showcase at the best pre-mixer of GDC 22
Companies at the Belgian Games booth pay € 50, other Belgian companies € 250 (only 1 booth at €50)
Deadline to sign up (password: belgiumrules) is 14th of February
Missed it? Apply to be part of European Game Showcase
For those of you who haven’t heard about CourageXL: it’s the best pre-mixer in San Francisco. Taking place on the eve of GDC 22 (that’s Sunday 20th of March), it’s an ideal way to get warmed up before the conference madness breaks all loose on Monday.
The concept is pretty simple: play a game, get a beer. You’ll receive some drink tickets with your registration that you’re able to hand out to people that have played your video game. Before we throw the doors open for video game enthusiasts from the world over, there’s an exclusive VIP hour for press and publishers. Better warm up those elevator pitches!
Returning to the magnificent event space The Great Nothern, CourageXL has been a sold-out event in recent years. We expect it to be no different this time, so having a guaranteed place at the showcase will be a valuable addition to your GDC experience. Don’t hesitate to sign up.
If you *have* waited too long and there’s no more space for you at the event, you might also consider applying for the European Game Showcase. As opposed to CourageXL, this is a curated selection so there’s no guarantees you’ll be able to attend. However, it’s a very nice event to be part of, frequented by both press, publishers and other investors. You can give it a shot here. Deadline for this one is 21st of January.
A big thank you to FIT and AWEX for sponsoring CourageXL, providing our Belgian companies with the perfect boost to tackle GDC 22.
Christophe De bont 
14/01/2022
