News

Berlin / Potsdam – In its fourth funding session of the year, the New Media funding program of MBB is supporting 19 projects across games, XR experiences, and serial formats with a total of €1.6 million. This includes three projects from the DIGI.TALe funding program.

Puzzle enthusiasts (Puzzling Places 2D), deck-builders (Bloodletter), or flick gameplay (Flick Shot Rogues) – the funded games take analog concepts to the next level! The immersive projects transport us to maritime worlds (CAPTAIN NEMO, Darwins Erbe, De Maré) and also allow us to experience personal stories of flight and imprisonment (Architectures of Memory, Going on Game). Riveting and thought-provoking societal stories are promised by the serial formats, especially in the documentary sector: Mesut Özil: Zu Gast bei Freunden, Die Mafiamorde von Duisburg, or Tripped – LSD for Mom.

Here is an overview of all the funded projects!

GAMES

Puzzling Places 2D

Realities.io
€250,000  
Production funding  
This game lets players dive into the meditative flow of 3D puzzling: with photorealistic miniature models of real places, handcrafted soundscapes, and varying difficulty levels.
 

Bloodletter 

ALDAMAMI GAMES  
€160,000  
Production funding  
A deck-building game where players take on the role of a medieval barber. Using cards, they treat the villagers of their town to cure them from the harmful influence of a mysterious entity.
 

Iris  

Horizont Computergrafik
€100,000  
Development and production funding  
Codename "Iris" is the follow-up project to Rogue Voltage (2024). Here, players build crazy machines by strategically wiring circuits. The goal is to defeat opponents with wild chain reactions.
 

Flick Shot Rogues 

Butter By The Fish
€90,000  
Production funding  
This game is a mix of turn-based roguelike and physics-based flick gameplay. Players fight enemies and find magical items as they climb a cursed island to retrieve a treasure.
 

Emmi & Unipig – Anyone Can Be A Unicorn!

Carte Blanche Media  
€70,000  
Development funding  
An adventure game based on the children's book series Emmi & Unipig by author Anna Böhm. In this world, every child receives a mythical creature on their 10th birthday.
 

The Masquerade

Adrien Laurent
€45,000  
Production funding  
A murder-mystery party game where players must hide from their hunter by disguising themselves as NPCs while simultaneously gathering clues to pursue their own target.
 

XR AND OTHER INNOVATIVE AUDIOVISUAL CONTENT

Kalunga

Duellmann Filmproduktion
€100,000  
Production funding  
In this interactive VR experience, human traffickers raid the peaceful African village of little Ilu. Together with her mother, she is taken aboard a ship bound for Brazil. But Ilu has her magical doll, Kalunga, with her.
 

CAPTAIN NEMO

INVR.SPACE 
€80,000  
Development funding  
A sequel to Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas, this interactive VR experience lets users embark on a steampunk underwater adventure. In this post-colonial, ecological fable, users learn more about Captain Nemo's past.
 

Darwins Erbe

Rocinante Film 
€66,000  
Development funding  
This mixed-reality journey invites users to experience the ecological threats to the Galápagos Islands firsthand with a local fisherman. The experience encourages reflection on our relationship with nature and the role of tourism.
 

DeMaré

Actrio Studio  
€30,000  
Development funding  
In this cinematic multiplayer mixed-reality experience, users accompany Luiza, the last Tainha fisherwoman, on a journey where the depths of the ocean merge with the depths of memories.
 

Intersection  

supa stories
€25,000  
Development and production funding  
This innovative documentary series uses a mobile game to reveal the mechanisms of discrimination and privilege in society. Viewers follow a group of players as they question their own perspectives. A DIGI.TALe funding project.
 

Architectures of Memory

Voices Films
€22,000  
Development and production funding  
This project tells the story of former solitary confinement prisoners in the U.S. through a three-part documentary series and a WebXR experience. The inhumane conditions and trauma shape the survivors' lives years later. A DIGI.TALe funding project.

 

Going on Game

Fantastic Foe
€20,000  
Development and production funding  
Escaping isn't a game. Yet refugees in Bosnia and Herzegovina refer to their attempts to cross the EU borders as "the game." This interactive VR experience highlights the challenges and dangers of fleeing to Europe. A DIGI.TALe funding project.

 

SERIAL FORMATS

Mesut Özil: Zu Gast bei Freunden

Flare Film  
€275,000  
Production funding  
This series tells the story of Özil, an exceptional talent who, as the grandson of guest workers, rises to the top of the football world – but falls from grace when he is photographed with Turkish President Erdoğan in 2018.
 

Die Mafiamorde von Duisburg

Film Five
€140,000  
Production funding  
In 2007, the Italian mafia executed six people in the middle of Duisburg. The series analyzes the crime and reconstructs the forensic work at the crime scene using the latest technologies.
 

Tales on Rails

Wolffpack Vision
€50,000  
Development funding  
In this anthology series, each episode takes place exclusively in the compartments of a train, telling the story of passengers on a special journey. Each episode has a different director and explores a unique genre.
 

Mafia Matriarch  

The Thursday Company
€45,000  
Development funding  
In her early twenties, the daughter of one of the most powerful clan bosses of the Calabrian mafia takes over her father’s criminal empire. As the first in her bloodline, she aims to break the eternal cycle of violence and silence.
 

Tripped – LSD for Mom

Fireglory Pictures
€45,000  
Development funding  
Inspired by the possible alleviation of his mother's Alzheimer’s symptoms through LSD, Norman Ohler embarks on a trippy journey combining research road trip and true-crime investigation, exploring personal and societal views on psychedelics.

Vegan Killing

Camcore Filmproduktion
€20,000  
Development funding  
A duo of hitmen adopt the vegan lifestyle and want to quit. With their boss as a hostage, they embark on a genre-bending road trip that pushes their relationships and skills to the limit.