Chinese games firm Tencent is doing more to support developers in their early stages. 

Speaking to GI.biz, the firm said that it was expanding its Venture Lab scheme to help studios with things such as investment, publishing, marketing and consulting. The initiative already employs about 20 people. 

"After working with hundreds of studios, you sometimes enjoy the success and, unfortunately, more often you share the pain of failures — but that's the nature of the business, right?" Venture Lab boss Juno Shin said. 

"There are so many common mistakes studios make, especially the early stage studios because no one is born as a CEO. These people are just inherently positively minded, optimistic creators, but they are not necessarily very seasoned managers or know about setting up a bank account, payroll and technology issues, and talking to publishers and platforms.

"Our job is to really help reduce the risks of making the same mistakes, and show how to maximize the success rate of their first game."