Nexus Louisiana Tech Park

Level Up Lab

 

LEVEL UP LAB

Level Up Lab is a project of Louisiana Technology Park, that aims to create and bring new digital media companies to Louisiana, building on Louisiana's focus on the digital media and high-tech sectors. Level Up Lab will help developers to turn ideas into reality while simultaneously creating a commercial viable product. This is done by providing quality training in business, marketing and development as well as providing mentors throughout the company's tenure with Level Up Lab. The Lab was made possible in part by an investment from the Delta Regional Authority, a federal-state partnership that is congressionally mandated to help create jobs, build communities, and improve lives in the 252 counties and parishes of the Delta.

 
 
 

the program

Level Up Lab’s program develops your startup into a viable digital media company. During the program, you will learn invaluable lessons on sustainable company building practices throughout the 8 "level" process. Each phase is made up of milestones that are designed to keep your team focused throughout the creative process.  As you complete each level, our executive team will do a final review to make sure you’re ready to proceed to the next level.

levels

At Level Up Labs, you will progress through four main levels: 

LEVEL 1: DISCOVERY

You learn about us, we learn about you. 

  • Fill out an application on our website’s Apply portal. This will help us get to know a little about your team’s experience, development progress (if any), and what you hope to get out of the incubator program
  • Make an introduction. If your application looks like a good fit, we’ll have you in to meet the team. If Level Up Lab seems like a good place for you, we’ll get an agreement in place.

LEVEL 2: STRATEGY

We help you figure out how you're going to pull this off. 

  • Lay out a marketing strategy. Before you get started, you’ll work with our team to reach a plan for profitability. This way, you won’t have to backtrack if you’ve realized a potential new revenue stream.
  • Create a development blue print. “Plan your work, then work your plan.” We’ll help you generate ideas that ensures all members will survive the development phase when times get tough! Trust us, times will get tough.

LEVEL 3: THE GRIND

Time to execute. 

  • Move in. We’ll supply the tools needed to survive and will help you get situated. From here on out, a mentor will be available in the space during business hours for any questions or guidance.
  • Get creating. Time to start building out your blueprint. We will facilitate Skype sessions with experts in character design, environment design, etc., to help your team hone skills in key areas.

LEVEL 4: FINAL STAGES

Sink, swim, or try it again. 

  • Submit product to the market. Once your game is good to go, it will be released into the market and monitored. During this time, we will help you refine and adapt the product to the best of our abilities.
  • Evaluate. This is the moment where our team sits down with you and through an intense series of reflections to predict your product’s future. Based on past financial numbers and the market’s response to the product, we will help develop a two-year plan for the product or determine if it is time to let her sink and/or try again.

office space

Not only do we give you a home for developing your idea we even provide the amazing creative juice, coffee! Other than coffee there are a few other tiny amenities we offer:

  • Mentors that have experience creating mobile, pc, and console titles.
  • Business class internet with a private network.
  • Private conference rooms for those important business meetings!
  • Business and Marketing support with on site training.
  • Software licenses, hardware, and other types of equipment you may need!
  • Motion Capture and Green Screen! Want to send postcards from Fiji? Now you can!
  • Establishing connections and partners for your project/company.
  • Outside support provided by industry veterans.
  • Modular programming and art assets to accelerate your progress!
  • Business coaching from experienced professionals.

All of this is at your disposal and we don’t even try to take creative control of your project! Your team will be in full control while our team focuses on providing the best support possible to make your project into a success. We are not an investor or owner of your project, we are helpers building you and your team into professional developers/entrepreneurs.

costs & royalties

Nothing comes free, but things can be affordable! Our shared space has multiple workstations available to suit teams of various sizes. The base price for all teams is $150 per month for rent and this gets you access to all the amenities as well as two workstations. If your team needs more than 2 workstations, additional work stations can be rented for $75 each per month. This pricing model has been chosen to accommodate a variety of team sizes and allow the program to still be affordable to smaller teams!

Royalties
While we may not be developing your product, we are spending vast amount of time and effort in helping you succeed in your vision. This is to make sure that you are profitable and help our program grow even larger. That means if your project is successful, we will be rewarded for our efforts. All projects accepted into the program will have a revenue share of 10% and that money will continue funding the program to help it get even better!

Level Up Lab uses a simple formula to determine the lifespan of the royalty agreement to prevent us from growing too fat off your success! Once the project is completed and you’ve graduated from the program, the revenue share clock will start. To determine when your revenue share will be voided simply multiply the duration of the time in Level Up Lab by 3. We find this method is simple yet effective! So if you have been working on a 6 month iPhone game, you will have a 10% royalty for 18 months. 

software

Assembla Account: (Source Control). Your one home for web development projects, teams, files, code, and tasks. Save time by streamlining collaborations with developers, designers, and clients.

SoundSnap: Access to more than 200,000 sound effects and loops.

Unity Access: Unity is a flexible and powerful development platform for creating multiplatform 3D and 2D games and interactive experiences. It's a complete ecosystem for anyone who aims to build a business on creating high-end content and connecting to their most loyal and enthusiastic players and customers.

For LA Tech Park Unity users, we also provide the following Unity extensions:

  • NGUI – A very powerful UI system and event notification framework.
  • 2D Special effects Package – Explosions, sprites, lightning, and loads of other cool effects.
  • 2D Terrain Editor – This package contains simple tool for Unity that allows you to create, edit or randomly generate 2D terrain.
  • Destructible 2D – Destructible 2D allows you to turn your solid sprites into fully destructible ones.
  • TextMeshPro – The ultimate text solution for Unity.
 

current teams

bitfinity

duck block games

jetstreame

king crow studios

pixel dash studios

procedural reality

star blade studios

 

Faq

We’re sure your head is spinning after reading through all of this information, so we’ve asked the questions and answered them for you.  If you can’t find the answers you seek on this page, feel free to contact us.

+ Q: WHAT MAKES YOUR PROGRAM DIFFERENT THAN OTHER ACCELERATORS?
Just like a lot of the other “accelerators” or “incubators”, Level Up Lab provides training and help with establishing the needed connections to be successful. What makes us different is how we go about the training process and the tools we provide to keep teams moving forward. Our mentors work closely with the teams throughout the entire process to make sure that teams do not get stuck in one area of the development pipeline. To top it off, we put our money where our mouth is and support teams by putting marketing resources behind their idea to help give it the boost it needs on launch day.

+ Q: WHAT TYPE OF PROJECTS DO YOU ACCEPT?
Anything interactive that deals with technology will get our attention.  The program is currently geared towards mobile, pc, mac, and web development. There is some potential for console development support but it would depend on the team size and requirements.

+ Q: HOW MANY MEMBERS CAN A PROJECT HAVE?
You can either fly solo or bring a fleet with you to Level Up Lab! We aim to make the program flexible to handle teams of various sizes. As long as your project makes it through our application process and we have a vacancy, you’re good to go! If at the time of submitting your application the program is full, we will put your application on the waiting list and get in contact as soon as a space is available.

+ Q: WHAT TYPE OF PROJECT SIZE IS REQUIRED?
Projects can be small or large in scope. Level Up Lab wants to have several different sizes of projects going on to help create more diversity in the office environment. It does not matter if your project is a 3 month or 3 year development cycle, we will consider you!

+ Q: CAN YOU HELP US GET FUNDING?
We are here to help you succeed!  We will do everything in our power to make sure you are prepared to talk with investors of all shapes and sizes. We can try to help put you in contact with the various connections we have established and point you in the right direction but we can not guarantee anything beyond the help.

+ Q: DO I NEED A LICENSED COMPANY ENTITY TO APPLY?
Being licensed is great if you are already making revenue from other projects but it is not needed. We will help you setup an entity after graduating from the program.

+ Q: DO I NEED ANY EXPERIENCE?
Experience is an area of interest when reviewing projects during the application process but great ideas are a true rarity. If you have little to no experience but have an awesome vision, we will work with you to educate you in the areas needed. You will have to be dedicated and patient since the process takes a lot of time and energy.

+ Q: IF I ALREADY HAVE FUNDING, CAN I STILL APPLY?
Definitely! We are here to help and produce great quality project regardless how large or small your pockets are. Funding will make your process easier but there will be areas of expertise that our team could provide to help save unnecessary cost.

+ Q: IS THERE AN AGE REQUIREMENT?
Currently the program is only accepting teams with members that are 18 or above. You could still potentially participate in the program through internships or through other channels. If you are interested in any of the “other” channels, please send us an email.

+ Q: DO I NEED TO BE A LOUISIANA RESIDENT?
This particular program requires on site participation and is geared to help grow the industry in our area, making it a requirement for majority of the members to be in Baton Rouge, LA.

+ Q: DO YOU PROVIDE OFFICE SPACE?
We provide a shared office space where a mentor will be available if you or your team runs into any issues. If you require private space due to team size or other reasons we are equipped with several offices but may require an additional fee.