Australian games fund guidelines finalised

Screen Australia has released the final guidelines for its new interactive and multiplatform fund intended to help grow its interactive entertainment industry.

The suite of programmes is worth more than $30 million over three years and incorporates $20 million of new Federal Government funding through the Interactive Games Fund as well as funding previously provided through the agency’s former Multi-platform programmes.

“We were impressed by the number, scope and quality of the submissions received from industry organisations, as well as games studios and individuals,” said Screen Australia’s chief executive Ruth Harley.

“We were also pleased with the level of engagement across all our other consultation channels, including online platforms and face-to-face meetings. We’ve amended the draft guidelines in several areas as a result.”

In the guidelines, Screen Australia details its decision on the most pressing issues that it received from commenters. Among the deliberations for Games Production fund were the discrepancy between the length of the game development cycle for large scale PC and console games, a requirement for creative teams to include at least two ‘experienced games practitioners’ and amendments to allow solo developers to apply “if they have created and released a minimum number of publicly available games as a solo developer”.

The draft guidelines the were published in February, explaining that applicants for game production funding can apply for up to $500,000 per project, while game enterprise submissions can ask for up to $800,000.

Deadlines for each programme are as follows:
– Games Enterprise – 22 April, 2013
– Games Production – 12 July, 2013
– Multi-platform Drama – 12 April, 2013
– Signature Documentary (including Multi-platform Production) – 22 March, 2013

For more information on the Screen Australia final guidelines, visit the official website.