Shulou(Shulou.com)12/24 Report--

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: ID:chuappgame, author: Zhu Siqi

Only works with more quantity and variety can become hotbeds of excellent works.

From September 30 to October 8, 2023, Melbourne International Games week, the largest gaming event in the Asia-Pacific region, was held in Australia. During Game week, the Australian government, in cooperation with ScreenAustralia, a government organization aimed at supporting the film and television industry, announced a new funding plan that pledged 1200 million Australian dollars (56.48 million yuan) to the Australian game industry over the next four years.

At Melbourne International Game week, a number of new government support programs were announced, which will benefit game makers and developers of all sizes and stages through a series of funds.

The first important fund is the Game production Fund (GamesProductionFund), also known as the "flagship Fund" (FlagshipFund). Teams with a budget of less than A $500000 can receive funding of up to A $100000. Proportionally, the funds funded can reach up to one-fifth of the game budget, which is not a small sum for small start-up teams.

Moreover, the game production fund has another advantage: it can really help the game project through the most difficult period, whether it is early, middle, or late for the team.

The fund replaces the Game expansion Pack (Games:ExpansionPack) project, launched in March 2022, which is aimed at emerging and small independent game studios and provides direct funding for original Australian games with a budget of less than A $500000. Since its inception, it has provided more than $8 million for the release of 62 Australian games.

The difference between the old and new funding schemes is that the primary purpose of the game expansion package is to help the game get on the shelves, which requires a certain degree of completion of the work. The game production fund can cover multiple stages of game development, which can be a pre-emptive trial version or a Demo ready for investors to watch. This will undoubtedly give funded developers more flexibility in the use of aid funds.

The other is the emerging Game makers Fund, which aims to help developers from different backgrounds, especially those who lack enough time and money due to background constraints, to have the same opportunity to make games. Another announcement added that the foundation provided funding of up to A $30,000 for "risky and exotic games", targeting "emerging creators, multiple voices, and well-known creators interested in creative and artistic experiments".

The fund covers a wider range of areas. ScreenAustralia has previously launched a fund for aboriginal game studios to support niche game developers. After the establishment of the emerging Game makers Foundation, some experimental and artistic works can also be supported.

These funds will open multiple rounds of applications before the end of the 2026-2027 fiscal year, and the first round of applications has been opened by November 30.

Finally, ScreenAustralia also announced the establishment of a delegation of Future leaders (FutureLeadersDelegation), with the goal of helping Australian developers participate in GDC (Game Developers Conference, Game developers Conference). Because of the high cost and the pressure of delivery results, many developers are eager to participate in GDC, but are unable to do so. To this end, the delegation of future leaders will provide support to early and medium-term developers who have never participated in GDC before. Applications for funding are now open and will close on November 9. Developers who have not participated in GDC before, have released at least one game and currently have a game project on hand can apply. Finally, five groups of developers will be selected to participate in the 2024 GDC.

The support of the game industry is part of the Australian government's Science and Technology Innovation Program package. According to reports, in 2021, the Australian Finance Minister said that a strong digital economy is the key to the future of the Australian economy, conducive to promoting employment and wage growth. Previously, as a government organization, ScreenAustralia mainly funded film and television projects, and then increased funds for video games.

The scope of ScreenAustralia funding has also been expanded since 2021, when the federal government introduced a video game tax credit that provides a 30 per cent tax credit for games with a budget of more than $500000. On this basis, there will be a "game expansion pack" starting in 2022, with an additional A $1200 in the next four years from 2023 to 2024. Generally speaking, the Australian government has supported large and small and medium-sized manufacturers and individual developers through ScreenAustralia.

At present, it seems that these supports have been effective. The Australian video game industry has experienced significant growth since fiscal year 2015-2016, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics's film, television and digital games survey for fiscal year 2021-2022. Among them, industry revenue increased by 265%, the number of games produced increased by 68%, and employment in the video game sector increased by 203%-of which the game industry is the fastest growing of all film and television digital industries.

Although most of the funded team works are still in the production process, we can still find some cases that have been online or provided trial content.

"Bilkins'Folly" is a lovely puzzle-solving adventure game in painting style. In order to find his grandfather and mother who disappeared many years ago, the protagonist Percy went on an adventure with his puppy. Because of the shipwreck, Percy had to find another way to move on, looking for treasure and discovering family secrets. The style and play of the game are quite special. After getting on the shelves, it has a good reputation and has been well received by the media and players.

Many players feedback, the game depicts a very lovely adventure "Diets&Deities" is a style of wild audio games, has been on the shelves in Steam, the release time is uncertain. The theme of the game is "World Food". Players can experience music and food from different cultures and experience the collision of hearing and taste in wild adventures.

"Diets&Deities" is colorful and wild "Misc.ATinyTale" is a 3D platform jumping game that focuses on two robots. The little robot is very cute, and the design of the world is very fairy tale style. Because the body of the protagonist robot is very "mini", the familiar world looks different. The game aims to create a healing adventure for players, allowing robots to help each other and discover the secrets behind an explosion.

"Misc.ATinyTale" is full of healing flavor, these unique styles, different categories of small and medium-sized team games have greatly enriched Australia's local game industry.

Overall, the Australian government issued several new support policies to better cover small and medium-sized teams and individual developers, even if they are not all famous, and even get great returns. From a risk control point of view, there are bound to be setbacks, failures and even games that fail in funded teams, but if you take a longer-term view, this relatively relaxed and inclusive attitude is as important as substantial financial support-it can keep the game industry attractive for a long time and encourage more people with creative ideas to enter the game industry.

On this basis, the expansion of the industry as a whole and the accumulation of experience will eventually lead to amazing works-such as the familiar TeamCherry and HollowKnight, or HouseHouse and UntitledGooseGame. Excellent works are not always born out of thin air, and a dynamic industry ecology will become a hotbed for more excellent works.

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