Dutch Game Garden

The Dutch Game Garden is a video game studio incubator which was launched in Utrecht, The Netherlands in 2008 using funding from the European Regional Development Fund. The organisation is the largest such program in the Netherlands.

History
The universities in Utrecht- Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht and Utrecht University had been offering courses in game development since 2002. The Utrecht city council and Dutch government recognised the potential for the rapidly growing video game sector in 2008, which at the time suffered from a lack of visibility in the Netherlands. The only major studio in the country at that time was Guerrilla Games, and so the Dutch Game Garden was conceived as a means to invest in new studios. Many studios at the Dutch Game Garden were formed by former students from games programs at the local universities. By 2014 the program had resulted in the creation of 200 jobs and 6 million euros in revenue.

Events
In 2010, the Dutch Game Garden introduced the INDIGO showcase, an interactive exhibition of the Dutch video games. It has become an annual event in the Netherlands, and showcases Dutch video games at the international events.

Notable studios incubated

 * Vlambeer - Ridiculous Fishing (2012)
 * Abbey Games - Reus (2013)
 * Ronimo Games - Awesomenauts (2013)
 * Digital Dreams - Metrico (2014)
 * Active Cues - Tovertafel (2015)
 * Wispfire - Herald: An Interactive Period Drama (2017)
 * RageSquid - Descenders (2019)