Applications for our NEW Cooperative Foundations program are opening Monday February 9 - March 6, 2026!

This intensive program offers a $5,000 grant to cover 2 months of cooperative studio pre-formation education and development support. We can accept 5 studios and have 2 spots reserved for Toronto-based studios thanks to Toronto Workforce Collaborative, the City of Toronto, and Ontario Creates.

For more information on the program and what it includes, check out our website.

Join the info session on February 18 at 11:00AM PST / 2:00PM EST by registering here.

But before you rush off to work on your application, let’s take some time to catch up with one of the teams from our last Peer Accelerator cohort…

Polyvale Studios! —— a three-person team made up of Aric and Leslie (who are siblings) and their pal and collaborator Winnie.

Aric: We are an award-winning studio with a focus on making impact games. Our name comes from the word polyvalent, which in French means versatile or multi-skilled, like a renaissance person.

We each bring a lot of different skills to our projects. Winnie is a talented sound designer, composer, and professional cellist. Alongside video games, Leslie is an actor and intimacy director. I’ve worked in many different fields, and I’ve written eleven books (both speculative fiction and non-fiction about social movements).

Winnie: We are a group of good listeners who bring care and empathy to the people we work with.

Leslie: We are a team looking to create positive social impact with our work. One interpretation of our name is vale = valley, which I think of as a protected space (between hills or mountains), full of rich soil, water, and life. “Many valleys,” places that can contribute to the growth of all.

Can you tell us anything about what you’re working on right now?

Our game Dark Money is currently in development for release in 2027. The prototype, a finalist in Floodlight Gaming’s Investigative Journalism Jam, is based on the OCCRP’s (Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project) reporting on global money laundering systems or laundromats, in which "money stolen from some of the world’s most vulnerable people is laundered for political influence and personal enrichment.”

Polyvale has had a few successful game jam prototypes Maybe We Saved the World (Just Play: A Game Jam for Climate Futures) and Diem (which won the Citizens, Assemble! Jam) which are also in different stages of development.

What’s your biggest takeaway from the Baby Ghosts program so far?

Leslie: How amazing it is to be part of a community of people focused on mutual care, support, problem-solving, skill/knowledge-sharing. Especially as someone with related skills, but not formal training in this work.

Winnie: Shifting my mindset toward thinking as a team and community while maintaining fairness for each individual. At the same time, learning to be more vulnerable by sharing my thoughts and asking for support without guilt, and realizing that this openness is part of the magic that makes a team or community stronger.

Aric: Baby Ghosts has been a fantastic experience. It’s meant so much to have the care and support of the entire community. Whenever we’ve had a question or a problem, we’ve been able to get great advice, insights, and perspectives immediately. And it’s been so validating and helpful, during prototyping, to get quick feedback from a community of very smart people. We also made two games during the program, both of which won global recognition – we came out of the accelerator with new collaborations and funders, and a solid financial foundation, despite this being a really tough time for the games industry in general.

What do you think we (all of us involved in game making) do to make the video game industry better?

Leslie: Creating working conditions that allow people to show up as themselves, ask for what they need… and actually provide that!

Winnie: Spreading healthier working cultures that inspire other studios to follow. Starting with building deeper connections, practicing thoughtfulness, and being good listeners with our collaborators can make the environment more encouraging for everyone.

Aric: One of the most memorable exercises I received as a young writer was: Imagine that you are sitting down this morning at a blank page; you can write whatever you want, but as soon as you finish you will die – what will you write?

Perhaps it sounds macabre, but that prompt made me braver as a writer. It made me approach my books asking: what is the most important or impactful thing I can write at this moment?

We live in a moment of profound global crisis. Artists of all kinds can help people navigate that crisis – can celebrate things that make life worth living, can imagine different and better futures, can help express the deep and wrenching emotions that come from being awake to the world in this moment.

I think as video game developers, we have some special opportunities to do this work, and to engage with social movements.

To read more about the overlap between games and social movements, check out Aric’s article “What Great Games and Powerful Social Movements have in Common” (2023) or his and eileen’s book chapter for The Game Needs to Change (2026).

Rising to that challenge requires courage. In bigger studios – in any big company or institution – it’s rare to see that. Many studios are afraid of backlash for being too “woke,” and don’t want to do anything that could negatively impact marketing.

My belief, however, is that a lot of the people who play games are hungry for honest and subversive games that respond to the crises of our time. We need games that are anti-capitalist, feminist, anti-imperialist, and that show better ways of living and relating to one another. And that can help people fight against authoritarianism, inequality, and other threats to our collective future.

Hear, hear!

- eileen & Jennie