GamePreneurs
game studio accelerator
Astana Hub's accelerator for game studios and teams from Kazakhstan and the CIS — mobile and PC games. Over 16 weeks teams go from prototype to publishing- and investment-readiness: preparation, market research, development, validation on real players and launch. Decisions are made on data: retention, cost per install, payback. The programme is operated by Creata Games; on 3 October the teams pitch to publishers and investors at AI & Digital Bridge.
Starts03.10
- Dates
- 16 weeks · team pitching on 3 October at AI & Digital Bridge · 15:00–16:00
- Where
- Astana · Pitch Zone · EXPO IEC
- Format
- offline
- Partner
- Astana Hub
Rules (short version)
Rules (short version)
- 01Who it is for
Teams of two or more with a working prototype, not a concept: mobile (casual, mid-core, hyper-casual) and PC games. Readiness to work full-time in the programme and to be at Astana Hub. Release experience, prototype metrics and game jam participation help.
- 02Format
16 weeks: 4 weeks of Pre-Accelerator and 12 weeks of Accelerator. In person at Astana Hub in Astana plus online mentoring; out-of-town teams get accommodation in Astana.
- 03The funnel
Selection at a checkpoint after each stage: 30 teams at the start → 25 after research → 15 after development → 10–12 finalists.
- 04Metrics
Mobile-game unit economics: D1 and D7 retention, cost per install (CPI), LTV to CPI. The LTV/CPI ratio tells the team what to do next: stop, pivot, scale cautiously or scale aggressively.
Weeks 1–4 · Preparation
Pre-Accelerator: onboarding, team building and matching, 6 trainings and 4 business games, soft skills and basic tools.
Weeks 5–7 · Discovery
Market and genre analysis, unit economics, the hypotheses the game will test. Checkpoint — 25 teams go on.
Weeks 8–10 · Build
The core loop and an MVP, the first user-acquisition tests. Checkpoint — 15 teams go on.
Weeks 11–13 · Validate
Soft launch, A/B tests, first conversations with publishers. Checkpoint — 10–12 finalists.
Weeks 14–16 · Launch
Pitch preparation, presenting to the industry and meetings with publishers and investors.
What teams get
15 masterclasses from industry practitioners, 200+ hours of mentoring — two mentors per team, a user-acquisition testing budget, analytics tools and workspace at Astana Hub for the whole programme, accommodation for out-of-town teams, and access to publishers and investors.
Experts and tools
Masterclasses and reviews are run by industry companies: Playrix, Mytona, OGames, Grand Mobile, Play Ventures, AppQuantum. The teams work with Adjust, Sensor Tower, GameAnalytics, Firebase, Unity and Figma.
Why
To close the gap between the region's talent and global publishers and investors. The accelerator is one link in a single funnel: schools and jams → incubation → GamePreneurs → publishing → investment.
Pitching on 3 October
The accelerator's teams pitch in the Pitch Zone of the AI & Digital Bridge forum to a jury of studio and publishing practitioners.
The 3 October programme ↗Mentors and expert
14+ years in mobile games, 6.5 of them in user acquisition: Social Quantum, Playrix, Mytona.
Speaker profile →
International expert in video games and esports: almost 20 years of international experience, 15 of them in the video games industry.
Speaker profile →Pitching jury, 3 October
19 years in the games industry, from artist to art director. Runs a workshop on 1 October and sits on the pitch jury on 3 October.
Speaker profile →
Co-founder of Cyber Temple; the city-builder DarkSwitch was shown at Gamescom, Future Games Show and GDC. Previously PayBox.money (FreedomPay) and Kcell.
Speaker profile →
Materials