An impact fund for studios led by underrepresented founders across Canada.
We support video game studios with studio development training, catalytic investments, and community in order to build strong, impactful teams of underrepresented makers who are shaping the future of games.
Studio support – not just project funding.
Weird Ghosts invests in founders who want to build profitable impact-oriented studios with a long-term vision and commitment to equitable worker-centric structures.
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How we fund.
We believe in creators retaining ownership of their companies and IP. Our investments are structured around shared earnings so that we recoup only after your team is paid.
Grants
For teams who want to form a co-op, get studio operations up and running, and get support with impact strategy. Prepares teams for further fundraising. Now administered through Baby Ghosts.
$25,000 / 6 months
Investment
For more established teams (and Baby Ghosts alumni) with a project in any stage of development. Allows key personnel to focus full time on studio development.
Up to $150,000
Proud to sponsor.
We'd love to support more initiatives like these, especially in Atlantic Canada, the Territories and the Prairies. Get in touch!
Get in touch.
About us.
Weird Ghosts was born from a collective desire to empower structurally excluded game devs. Our ultimate goal is a funding landscape in Canada that truly supports game studios at all stages so that all can grow and thrive.
Eileen Mary Holowka, general partner
eileen (they/she) is a queer and disabled white settler living on Treaty 1 territory in Winnipeg. They are a writer, game dev, and community organizer/advocate with a background in theatre, games, poetry, and health communications. They have a PhD in communication studies from Concordia University and have published extensively within and outside of academia.
They are a co-founder of both Weird Ghosts and Baby Ghosts with Jennie Robinson Faber, as well as a member of Gamma Space Collaborative Studio. They also work as the general manager of Infinite Ammo.
Jennie Robinson Faber, general partner
Jennie (she) is a queer white settler community arts advocate and organizer, software developer, and leader in the IDM industry for over 15 years. She co-founded the videogame arts nonprofits DMG Toronto (with Cecily Carver and Alex Leitch) and Gamma Space Collaborative Studio (with Henry Faber and Dann Toliver) in 2012. In 2015, she joined the board of the Toronto Media Arts Centre , and became its operations director in 2017.
She has served on a number of arts- and industry-related boards, with Ontario Creates, Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto, and the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, among others. She co-chaired the 2016 edition of IndieCade, presented at the Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI) in NYC.
Our minority investor is Infinite Ammo Inc.
Land acknowledgement.
Although we refer to ourselves as a Canada-wide fund, we acknowledge that what we now call Canada is built on unceded Indigenous territory. Weird Ghosts operates out of Winnipeg on Treaty 1 territory and Tkaronto (Toronto) on Treaty 13 on the unceded territory of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples.
We know that acknowledging the land is only one part of addressing settler colonialism in Canada. Weird Ghosts is owned by two white settlers who aim to practice uncolonization by prioritizing the support of Indigenous creators, centring social impact within the games industry, and creating less extractive funding models. We hope to take further measures to deconstruct colonialism in both our fund and the games industry as we continue to grow.
Works Consulted: Truth and Reconciliation Reports, Beyond Territorial Acknowledgements by Chelsea Vowel, Decolonization ~ Meaning What Exactly?