CAA has launched Frame1Games, a new venture to fund, accelerate and market independent video games.
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Per the agency, Frame1Games “pairs multi-million-dollar capital investment with a yearlong accelerator, giving developers mentorship from industry veterans and CAA executives and direct access to the partners and vendors needed to bring a game to market.”
CAA’s Frame1Games intends to back several independent projects each year with selected developers set to receive financing alongside strategic guidance across media, marketing, partnership, and distribution. Games included in the program will be showcased within a curated marketplace and, beginning in 2027, Frame1Games will support these titles at high-profile, consumer-facing video game industry events, including Summer Game Fest in June and The Game Awards in December.
Indie developers can apply to join Frame1Games’ first cohort at https://www.frame1games.com/.
Indie Fund investment partner Jared Yeager has been tapped to lead CAA’s Frame1Games. In his new role, Yeager, along with a board of experts, will oversee the program, advise participating developers, and build out the mentor network, “while cultivating strategic industry partnerships and guiding each cohort from development through commercialization.”
Along with his years spent as an investment partner with Indie Fund, which has backed more than 50 titles including “Hyper Light Drifter,” “Night in the Woods” and “Hollow Knight,” Yeager has spent 16 years as awards jury co-chair with IndieCade and is a founding member of FoxNext Games’ indie development fund. He has worked on major studio productions at Walt Disney Games, including “Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.”
Xalavier Nelson Jr., the founder of “El Paso,” “Elsewhere” and “I Am Your Beast” indie video game studio Strange Scaffold, will serve as one of the many mentors of the Frame1Games program.
The launch of Frame1Games comes following years of CAA’s close work within the video game industry, including its representation for Respawn, Obsidian, Turtle Rock Studios, AdHoc Studio, and Strange Scaffold.
“Independent developers are doing some of the most exciting work in games right now, often with little backing,” Douglas said. “Frame1Games helps standout creators navigate what it takes to get a game made and launched today through capital, industry relationships, and a direct line to partners who can turn a great idea into a lasting studio. The industry’s changing fast, and we want to make sure the emerging voices shaping what’s next have real support behind them.”
“We can all see that current models of funding and studio support are not serving developers or consistently bringing players great games,” Nelson Jr. said. “I’m excited to be a mentor for the program as Frame1Games brings a fresh, much-needed perspective to the space.”
See below for Variety‘s email Q&A with CAA head of games Derek Douglas and CAA games executive Jared Yeager.
What is the driving purpose of the program?
Derek Douglas, CAA head of games: At its core, F1G is about giving independent game developers support in the form of funding, hands-on mentorship from a diverse set of experts in the space, and a path to an audience for their creations. With indie games now making up over half of game sold worldwide, we want to support emerging, often under-resourced teams that don’t necessarily have the financing, relationships or marketing resources that other titles do. The goal isn’t just to find the next hit game, it’s to give genuinely talented developers the runway and support system to have a real shot, rather than leaving their success solely to chance.
Why now — what are you seeing in the indie industry/trends that makes this the time?
Jared Yeager, CAA games executive: Two things are happening simultaneously in video games. On one side, making traditional AAA games has become dramatically more expensive, which makes publishers more cautious around taking risks with new developers and new IP. On the other side, making and distributing games has never been more accessible, thanks to affordable development tools and easier distribution through platforms like Steam, itch.io and others. That has created a rare opportunity for indie devs who want to develop truly creative and innovative titles, many of which can and will become cornerstone franchises of the future.
However, with further democratization of game distribution comes an even greater challenge in discoverability, where many fantastic games can struggle to find an audience. We want to leverage all of the creative and innovative resources within CAAs network to put a spotlight on the teams we collaborate with so they connect with the players who will truly enjoy the experiences they are building.
How does this fit into CAA’s longterm strategy when it comes to the video game business?
Douglas: To understand F1G, you have to go back almost twenty years to when CAA first built a presence in games. At that time, publishers controlled nearly every path to market, and independent developers had little leverage to shape deals that provided long term stability and sustainability. That power imbalance is what CAA’s game division was built to correct. The guiding principal was to support the talent that large publishers were harnessing, and give those creators the same advocacy that the rest of the entertainment industry always had at CAA. It meant believing in an industry that was still emerging and believing in the talent that was driving that industry forward.
F1G is built upon the same instinct and principals, updated for a much changed industry. Indie games have grown from a niche into a creatively explosive and economically significant portion of the market. But the core challenges are ones CAA set out to solve two decades ago: enormous creative talent working independently, without the proper resources to build a sustainable future. F1G is not a wholly new strategy, it is an evolution of what CAA has always believed, that if you support highly talented people the art will flourish.