Their best games (Edna, Deponia, ...) were all made when Poki was still there. During that time they made some of the best modern pint-and-click adventures.
Their music's are very very solids and now underated because no one plyaed the game (and I didn't too but go listen to them, great DND ambiance Cool link)
To be fair, it has gotten a lot better. Games rarely get censored anymore. Dying Light 2 comes to mind. The Index also has become rare, also the complete confiscation.
But yes, I'm with you, the authorities have to go, the European classification should be enough!
It's not like Belgium does anything special either for the games industry. Their success is just due to hard work and good management by a studio that's taking the long term view and it's passionate about the work.
Just for context, you can't actually apply anymore and it's been like that for about a year. And that's not the first time period for which aplications are blocked.
In addition, both founding a start-up and actually applying is a lot of bureaucracy. You've probably run dry of money long before it's approved.
Short story time. In USA, over 25 years ago, a Russian immigrant used to give me rides down the peninsula to work in the early hours. I wondered at his ability to survive and provide for a family in our high cost of living area. He told me that applying for government and nongovernmental aid and so on was easy for him because he was used to the much worse Soviet bureaucracy.
Not only this, they cut the budget starting 2025 by a lot and only productions with >400k on their own will be qualified to apply for a state funding.
Cause that will be a good reason for each state (Bundesland) to rise their funding (Berlin has some millions and Hessen 260k/year funding budget). Or at least that was one of the arguments to cut the state budget.
It can’t be easy with all the 5 week vacations, 37,5h work week, and basic workers rights to try to develop as much as the US dev sweatshop. Let’s not even mention ma/paternity leave.
Edit: Seems yet again I've managed to showcase a lil bit of my ignorance. Learning is fun. I’m not sure if the downvoting is happening because of my sarcasm or if my sarcasm wasn’t obvious, or for other reasons🙂.
37,5h work week, I wish. Although I have 6 weeks guaranteed vacation, one extra day for night shifts and 2 regeneration days which are basically vacation days