Community
Facilitating ties with the game community
Stimulating Peer-to-Peer Learning
Part of your “incubation offer” is creating ties with other stakeholders in the ecosystem in order to anchor the team in the industry context and give them a sense of being part of a larger dynamic. The current tendencies of mixed-level teams and of dedicated co-working initiatives (often referred to as “hubs”) demonstrate the understanding that peer-to-peer learning is invaluable, and does perfectly complement any mentoring and coaching.
Commonly, the game community is very open and willing to share. You see less of the tendencies of competitive secrecy and elbowing of other creative industries. For an incubator, a lively community is worth a million. Therefore, you should not only be part of this community yourself (see chapter on ecosystem), but make sure to take along your incubatees to community events, including jams and camps, and introduce them to other teams and key players (e.g. network managers or association representatives, but in particular also potential mentors).
At the Fringes
Basically, this concerns the part of the industry that is not attending community events and is not actively involved in networking. Still, this part of the industry is there at the fringes of community activities: large companies who are important for recruiting mentors, or alumni programmes that strengthen ties with their incubators and again form a source for collaboration with the incubator and teams.
Work Experience
It is not yet a very common practice, but this could be an interesting aspect in your offer: encouraging teams to work with other companies, e.g. making use of schemes such as the EU-programme “Young Entrepreneurs”1Erasmus for Young Entepreneurs: https://www.erasmus-entrepreneurs.eu/ or arrange for a kind of “work experience” with larger companies. Looking into co-productions or merging teams (perhaps with a team from another incubator programme) would also belong into this category.