Diagnosis first. Always.
Every cluster breaks in a different place, so no two engagements are the same. We find where the sequence fails, then design the mechanism that fixes it.
Three for regions, one for corporates. They stack, but they can be bought separately.
In games production, a vertical slice is a small section of a game built to full final quality, made to prove the full production works before anyone commits to building it.
The diagnostic does the same job for a region. Who the studios actually are, at what stage, funded how, and where the sequence breaks for them specifically. What capital exists locally, at what stage, and why it is not moving. Which studios are within reach of investment and what is blocking them.
You end up with a cluster map, a diagnosis, a shortlisted cohort and a costed design for what to build next.
The studio is player one. Capital is player two. That relationship should be co-operative rather than extractive, and most of the time it is not.
A cohort of later-stage studios taken to the point of capital: publisher deal literacy (advances, recoupment, what to refuse), milestone and cashflow modelling, VGEC sequencing, IP retention, valuation and structure. It ends in matched investor engagement rather than a demo day.
Built for studios that are already viable, to fix the sequencing problem stopping them converting that viability into capital. The cohort is later stage than most support programmes reach.
Player Two cohorts fill from studios already on our list. If you are making games in the UK, register your interest and you will hear first when a programme opens in your region.
Design of the actual financial instrument the diagnostic identified. That might be a milestone bridging facility, a recoupment-aware co-investment vehicle, a VGEC advance product, or a regional games fund.
Includes governance, investment committee design and deployment criteria. This is fund architecture, not advice about funds.
For production companies, media groups and IP holders who want a route into games talent short of acquiring a studio outright.
Designing an internal games innovation function: how to source studios, structure deals, retain IP, and build a pipeline that actually ships. Named because a sandbox is open and experimental by design, in games and in corporate innovation alike.
Both sides are diagnosed together from the start, and only diverge once there is a clear picture of where the gap actually sits.
Baseline
Assess the cluster and the capital landscape together rather than as separate briefs. Who exists, what money is here, and what each is currently doing.
Diagnose
Establish where the sequence actually breaks for these studios. Which of the four failures is binding here, and for whom. This is done through structured interviews, not desk research.
Map
Plot studios by stage against capital availability by stage. The mismatch between those two answers is the finding, and it is different in every region.
Design
Specify the instrument the region needs, with governance and deployment criteria. Where the gap is investor-side, this is where a partner like UKBAA plugs in.
Deliver
Run the studio programme and the mechanism together, built from the design rather than from a template.
Embed
Leave the region with a capability that keeps working. Alumni structures, a live investor relationship, and a mechanism that does not need us to operate it.
Capital activation sits at Design and Deliver
Calyx builds the pipeline and the architecture. Activating the capital base is a specialist function, and UKBAA is our preferred partner for it: the national body for angel and early-stage investment, working across high net worth individuals, syndicates and institutional funds through Series A and beyond.
They join once the mechanism is specified rather than at the outset. A region that brings investors in before it has studios ready for them spends credibility it will need later.
Got a games cluster and no architecture around it?
The first step is finding out where the sequence breaks. That takes weeks, not months, and it gives you evidence you can take into a budget conversation.