About us

SpielFabrique – the video games ecosystem catalyst

Founded in 2016, SpielFabrique has developed an international and cross-border expertise of the video game industry. From mentoring indie game studios looking to bring their first game to market or established indie studios looking to scale up, to its consulting business towards public entities, SpielFabrique has built a comprehensive understanding of the video game ecosystem.

As a catalyst for the video game ecosystem, we bring together all industry stakeholders to create greater understanding, knowledge and collaboration. Our goal is to stimulate international activity and strengthen ecosystems.

Know-how based on first-hand experience

Odile Limpach and Thierry Baujard are not only the founders of SpielFabrique but also act as mentors for the project teams. These game industry professionals with international experience make their unique network of experts and investors from the German and French gaming sectors available to selected teams.

PR. ODILE LIMPACH

CO-FOUNDER

Odile teaches Economics and entrepreneurship at the Cologne Game Lab, TH Köln University of Applied Sciences and is managing the Incubator of the CGL. She also is co-founder of the accelerator SpielFabrique and works as Strategic Consultant for serious games and cross-media projects. Between, 2007 and 2014, she was the managing director at the German entertainment software studio Blue Byte. Before she was the managing director of Ubisoft GmbH, she graduated from business school in France and completed her MBA in the USA. Odile is also involved as a volunteer in the areas of vocational training and creative industries development. Furthermore, during twenty years she acted as an advisor (CCEF) for the French Ministry for International Business Development.

odile[at]spielfabrique.eu

THIERRY BAUJARD

CO-FOUNDER

Thierry is co-founder of SpielFabrique and offers a unique expertise in funding strategy for the creative industries. He is the director of a group of companies involved in the financing of 4 main sectors: Audiovisual, Gaming, MusicTech and FashionTech including Media Deals which is a pan European investment network of private investors. His past experience include executive roles at Vivendi (London and Los Angeles) and Studio Babelsberg and Canalweb in Berlin. He is a graduate from a Business school in Paris and obtained his MBA at Bocconi (Italy) and UCLA (Los Angeles). He has also been involved in various public policy projects in access to funding at European, national and regional levels in many European countries. He is also an active investor in different creative companies.

thierry[at]spielfabrique.eu

MATTHES LINDNER

ACCELERATION PROJECT MANAGER

Matthes heads Spielfabrique’s EU Acceleration Programme. As such, he is primarily in charge of supporting ambitious studios to turn this ambition into success and growth. He is driven by a desire to democratize the cultural power video games hold. He brings a mix of educations and experiences to the team: After studying anthropology and sustainability, he worked as project manager in an international science communication NGO. Since then, he has also taught university courses, produced videos and hosted events on topics ranging from career design to futures literacy. Recently, he has become interested in how games foster futures thinking – and in molecular cuisine.

matthes[at]spielfabrique.eu

MELISSA NEU

PROJECT MANAGER

Mélissa is Project Manager for the African Games Co-production Market. She’s in charge of the selection, follow-up and coordination of the studios’ mentoring for this market. She also participates in the projects related to Africa. She’s also in charge of Communication & Event / Press Relations and coordinates communication concepts and tools. After more than 5 years working in advertising and communication agencies and graduating from Edhec Business School, she joined an industry she’s always been passionate about.

melissa[at]spielfabrique.eu

HUGO DERIVRY

PROJECT MANAGER

Hugo is project manager since 2020. He has a master’s degree of Business Administration from IESEG School of Management in France. After a first experience as an analyst in Strategy & Operations at Deloitte Portugal, he decided to follow his dream to work in the video game industry. At SpielFabrique, Hugo is in charge of different missions, such as the European Games Coproduction Programme or a research project on financing video games for the German government. He also represents SpielFabrique in CINNOVATE, an innovative project which aims to find new opportunities for cinemas, including exploring alternative offers using Esport & Virtual Reality (VR). Besides, Hugo coaches a semi-professional Esport team, after being a competitive player himself.

hugo[at]spielfabrique.eu

JEREMY LERESTEUX

COMMUNITY & IT MANAGER

Jérémy is the community and IT manager for SpielFabrique. He graduated with a Computer Science master’s degree from the University of South-Brittany in Lorient, France. Soon after, he found a passion for teaching and has been teaching french and computer science a-like for the past 10 years, building long-lasting relationship with students and institutions. Never forgetting his background as a programmer, he has been developping websites and applications while improving his skills in design, digital graphics, animation, 3D animation, etc. An avid and long time fan of video games, he joined Spielfabrique as its community & IT manager to build and grow its presence on the web and social networks.

jeremy[at]spielfabrique.eu

Passion connects us

SpielFabrique stems from a Franco-German video game initiative created in April 2015 by Media Deals at the French Embassy on the occasion of the International Games Week Berlin.

In addition to several important partnerships that have been formed since its foundation by Odile Limpach and Thierry Baujard, SpielFabrique has close relationships with the Franco-German Youth Office (FGYO/ OFAJ/ DFJW) and the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW. Beyond any commercial work priorities, SpielFabrique has therefore set itself the task of encouraging and strengthening the transfer of know-how and intercultural exchanges between German and French participants, while giving them access to valuable information about the German and French video game markets. Since 2017, we have also been working closely with ARTE and the city of Strasbourg to develop a market for the Franco-German co-production of video games.

Since 2020, SpielFabrique have expanded its activity to more countries in Europe. 5 countries are now part of the European Games Accelerator and the European Union co-funded with the Creative Media program our European Games co-production Market. 17 countries are now involved in the co-production program.

In the meantime, SpielFabrique develops programs for African studios with the Goethe Institute and the German Foreign Office to foster collaboration between Europe and Africa within the video game industry.

We are now a true international video games ecosystem catalyst!