What the funding workgroup at Madeira Games Summit 2026 raised
Madeira Games Summit 2026 ran in Funchal on May 7-8. On the first day, we asked participants to name the one thing they would wish they had fixed that week in the game industry, looking five years ahead. Their answers shaped three workgroups. One of them took on “Why money isn’t reaching the games that need it”, filed under funding, economics and risk.
GamesIndustry.biz published the result on June 29, 2026, in a feature by Lewis Packwood. This article summarises what GamesIndustry.biz reported, then lists where developers meet publishers and investors at DevGAMM.
01.Key takeaways
- GamesIndustry.biz reported that across the funds designed with $1 million to invest, under half of the capital went to traditional game content.
- According to the report, participants led their own pitches with creative vision, but as investors they asked for return structures and downside protection.
- The report’s advice to developers starts with stating expected returns and a timeframe, and naming the type of capital you need.
- At DevGAMM, developers meet publishers and investors at Engage! with Publishers & Investors, Public Pitch, Mentors Corner and the DevGAMM Awards judging panel.
02.How did the funding workshop run?
GamesIndustry.biz reported that Adam Boyes of Vivrato hosted the workshop and that it ran in four stages. Executives and studio leaders took part on condition of anonymity, so the feature names the host and none of the participants.
| Stage | What participants did |
|---|---|
| 1 | Wrote game pitches |
| 2 | Designed investment funds |
| 3 | Built a hypothetical portfolio as a group |
| 4 | Rewrote their pitches using what they had learned |
Participants were given $1 million to invest when they designed their funds.
03.What did the participants find?
The funds leaned away from games. GamesIndustry.biz reported that participants who had pitched original game projects at the start designed funds weighted toward tools, infrastructure, platform technology and the Roblox creator space. Under half of the capital across all the funds went to traditional game content.
The second finding was a language gap. According to the report, participants led their own pitches with creative vision, conviction and game design. In the investor seat, they asked for return structures and downside protection. No one quoted returns in a first pitch, although every participant who designed a fund set return targets and timelines.
Attendees also observed that the investors who stayed in games after earlier setbacks are more cautious than they used to be. That leaves more of the explaining to developers. Boyes described the gap between the two sides as “a translation problem”, as quoted by GamesIndustry.biz.
04.What does the report recommend to developers?
GamesIndustry.biz reported advice for developers who pitch to funders: lead with expected returns and a timeframe, name the kind of capital you need, and research a fund’s remit before you approach it. The feature has the full list, along with the ideas attendees raised for the industry.
05.Where do developers meet publishers and investors at DevGAMM?
DevGAMM has four routes: Engage! with Publishers & Investors, Public Pitch, Mentors Corner and the DevGAMM Awards judging panel.
| Route | What it is | Recent example |
|---|---|---|
| Engage! with Publishers & Investors | Developers bring pitch decks to focused conversations with publishers and investors | Gdańsk 2026: developers met Raw Fury, Vivid Games, tinyBuild, Feardemic and HYPERCELL |
| Public Pitch | Developers pitch live to the audience and a jury of industry experts | Gdańsk 2026: five teams pitched on June 18 |
| Mentors Corner | 20-minute one-on-one sessions with experts | Belgrade 2026: mentors covered Funding & Pitch Review. Lisbon 2026: confirmed areas include Looking for funding & Pitch Review |
| DevGAMM Awards judging panel | Investors and publishers judge the entries and look for new games | tinyBuild discovered Hozy while judging and signed the publishing deal with the team |
The 2026 judging panel includes investors and PC and mobile publishers. They come from Curve Games, FDG Entertainment, Focus Entertainment, The Games Fund, Anshar Publishing, Akupara Games, Kepler Interactive, TapNation, SayGames and more. We described the Hozy deal in our August 6 post on the new Awards categories.
06.Questions about the funding workgroup
Who hosted the workshop? GamesIndustry.biz reported that Adam Boyes of Vivrato hosted it.
Who took part? Executives and studio leaders, who spoke on condition of anonymity, according to GamesIndustry.biz. The Summit itself brought together 120+ decision-makers from 20 countries.
Where can I read the full report? On GamesIndustry.biz, in the feature by Lewis Packwood dated June 29, 2026. The Madeira Games Summit 2026 page there also lists its features on the discoverability workgroup (August 4) and on a workshop about a culture of fear (July 24).
07.Meet publishers and investors in Lisbon
DevGAMM Lisbon runs on November 17-18, 2026. Engage! with Publishers & Investors is on the preliminary schedule for November 17, from 14:30 to 16:30, and Epic Games Store sponsors it. Participation is free, and pre-registration is required.
