Industry body funds Aussie game development

Earlier this year, industry body Screen Australia announced the introduction of a new A$3-5 million fund to help Australian developers create innovative interactive projects with a strong storytelling component.

The All Media Fund will look specifically at games, websites, applications, alternate- and augmented-reality worlds, massively multiplayer online role-playing games, and interactive drama as part of a new scheme to support Australian stories in the interactive entertainment space.

Today, Screen Australia announced the first 12 projects of the inaugural round of the program, which include multiple game development projects.

The first is an online game and short animation series for the ABC called Peledais. The project will be made by artists the Jurevicius brothers collaborating with game developer Fiasco. Aussie game developer Brawsome (Andrew Goulding, Ben Kosima) will also be part of the inaugural program, with the follow-up title to this year's PC adventure game Jolly Rover; the studio's new title will be MacGuffin's Curse.

Other game projects in the program include Double Happy Versus the Infinite Sadness, a story-driven adventure game and full transmedia entertainment property from digital agency Monkeystack; Neptune's Pride, an online strategy game for multiple players from developer Iron Helmet; and Quick Quest, a fantasy action RPG for touch-screen devices from Aussie developer Defiant Development.

The inaugural round of the All Media Program received 80 applications. The second round of the All Media Program closes on February 10, 2012. Guidelines are available on the Screen Australia website.