For those who have already read my feature piece “Australian Indie Development Scene and Screen Australia’s Interactive Games Fund – Beneficial, Limited or a Waste of Money?“, you will be aware that the first funds were recently released by Screen Australia for their federal government supported Interactive Games Fund. While that was for Enterprise funding to directly support studios, we have recently had word of 21 studios who have shared $2.6 million of Games Production funding for specific titles. The aim of this funding is to ensure that independent ‘indie’ studios have a better chance of getting a slice of the $80 billion worldwide market.
“Game development is the fastest growing sector of the worldwide audiovisual market but Australian independent studios have faced a shrinking workforce and extremely tough terms of trade. Yet the sector continues to showcase its creative force with breakthrough mobile games including Fruit Ninja and Ski Safari.” says Fiona Cameron, Screen Australia’s Chief Operating Officer, “The sheer volume and quality of applications showed that there is no shortage of talent or great ideas in Australian game development. The projects in this round demonstrate Australia’s unique point of difference in creative game design, and our world-class technical ability”.
This support for the independent Australian games sector will help grow creative businesses, develop original ideas and retain a skilled workforce in Australia. In this way we facilitate a shift from a reliance on work-for-hire to developing original projects,” Ms Cameron continued.
Information on each of the titles that have received funding will be available at the bottom of this post. While there will still be a limit to the funding that can be made through the Games Production fund, the application process is set to move to a system without any registration deadlines in 2014. Therefore if you start work on a game in January you won’t necessarily have to wait half a year to apply.
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This list of titles and information has been sourced from the official Screen Australia website.
ANIMAL DASH
Genre Endless runner
Shark Jump Studios
Developers Matt Le Krupa, Brad Wesson, James Pearse
Synopsis Animal Dash is a game in the ‘runner’ genre, developed for modern mobile devices and targeted at a young audience. The game takes place in a bright, cubic world, with the player taking control of a series of different animals in rapid succession. The player hops from island to island, gathering power-ups along the way, through a procedurally generated world that ensures that every game is unique and full of fun and interesting elements.
ANIMUS
Genre Real-time strategy
Playcorp Studios
Developers Chris Mosely, Eamon Logue, Pip Robbins, Alex Boylan
Synopsis Animus is a multiplayer real-time strategy game of planetary conquest. With an emphasis on slower-paced, tactical combat and chess-like decision-making, Animus is a game of deep strategic options that rewards players who out-think their opponent.
ASSAULT ANDROID CACTUS
Genre Action, arcade
Witch Beam Games
Developers Sanatana Mishra, Timothy Dawson, Jeffrey Van Dyck
Synopsis Assault Android Cactus is a twin-stick action game with an emphasis on high pressure gameplay and stylish moments. With screens of opponents, danger everywhere and high-scoring combo chains, it is a finely-tuned arcade style experience for one to four players.
Cactus, an enthusiastic police android, is responding to a stranded space freighter only to discover it under siege by its malfunctioning robot workers. Cut off from the outside and in over her head, Cactus and the androids she recruits along the way battle through the crippled freighter to reach the ship’s Nexus and put things right before it’s too late.
BIG BABY
Genre Toy, simulation
Big Ice Cream
Developers Caroline Kinny-Lewis, Gabrielle Banks, Daniel Horth, Adam Sofo, Helen Iacurto, Trudy Cooper
Synopsis Big Baby is a digital toy baby designed for three to six-year-old children, delivered on iOS devices and soon to be launched in international markets. Big Baby brings four babies to life via a mobile device, and is ultra responsive, designed around their reactions, emotions and needs. In the application children interact with a baby using familiar open-ended activities in an environment that provides a highly individual play experience.
BLIGHT OF THE IMMORTALS
Genre Real-time strategy
Iron Helmet
Developers Jay Kyburz, Penny Kyburz, Alex Ries
Synopsis Blight of the Immortals is a web-based strategy game that is played over several weeks. You can log in once or twice a day to recruit new heroes, command your armies, and fight back the blight. Players lead a host of fantasy creatures in a war against a plague of immortality. For every fantasy creature there is an undead counterpart, each with unique strengths and weaknesses. Blight of the Immortals is a web-based game and can be played on any modern browser, including on desktop and mobile systems. Play when you want and how you want.
BONZA
Genre Word puzzle
MiniMega
Developers Ben Huxter, Punya Huxter
Synopsis Bonza is a simple and unique word puzzle game that’s easy to learn but also challenging to even the savviest linguists. If you like word puzzle games like 7 Little Words or 4 Pics 1 Word then you will love Bonza. Each puzzle requires the player to arrange word fragments to solve it, like a reverse crossword! Puzzles are specially crafted with a theme so players must use their vocabulary as well as spatial awareness. The game initially features over a hundred puzzles and puzzle packs can be purchased in-game along with coins as consumable currency.
BURDEN
Genre Strategy, tower defence, action-adventure
Pixelpickle Games
Developers Robert Dowling, Clinton Shepherd
Synopsis Burden is tower defence meets Shadow of the Colossus. Huge creatures roam the land carrying a mysterious cargo. Along the way rampaging armies and monsters launch assaults on these gigantic creatures out of fear and in an effort to steal the fabled treasure they are rumoured to carry. The Observers have bestowed the player with the duty to protect the massive creatures by building traps and defences directly onto the giants’ colossal frames and ensure these beasts of burden arrive at their destination.
DEFECT: SPACESHIP DESTRUCTION KIT
Genre Customisation, action, battle
Three Phase Interactive
Developers Drew Morrow, Paul Baker, Chris Burns
Synopsis Defect is a game of building spaceships, from small fighters up to planetsized space stations. After every mission the crew will defect and steal the ship, leaving you to build a bigger and better ship to take them on. Part construction game and part combat game, the player takes on the role of a commander in the Suppressed Systems Navy, tasked with defending a planet that the whole universe wants to own.
FENG SHUI MASTER
Genre Puzzle
Many Monkeys Development
Developers Matthew Ditton, Kevin McGrath, Tom Killen, Tim Best
Synopsis Feng Shui Master is a tongue-in-cheek, touch-centred game where the player takes on the role of Teacup, a humble pig, wise in the ways of Feng Shui. Teacup uses his skills to direct the flow of energy through his village to ensure good fortune, and joyful laughs, for all. Only after foiling the dark chi plots of ‘The Master of Negative Space’ can you truly claim the title of Feng Shui Master.
FRAMED
Genre Narrative-driven, puzzle
Loveshack Entertainment
Developers Joshua Boggs, Adrian Moore, Ollie Brown
Synopsis Framed is an innovative narrative-puzzle game set in a noir comic book world. Presented as an animated graphic novel, each panel depicts an important action or event. After watching the scene unfold, players can rearrange the order of the panels, changing their meaning and the context of the actions within them. This results in a unique interactive narrative where every action is framed by the last, and the player’s imagination carries the story between each panel.
GEMS OF WAR
Genre Puzzle, strategy
Infinity Plus Two
Developers Steve Fawkner, Andrew Castenmiller, Rhiannon Jones
Synopsis In Gems of War, players experience a grand strategy game in a high-fantasy universe. The unique hook is that unlike other strategy games, the battles here are played out on a match-3 puzzle board. Exactly as Puzzle Quest did for role-playing games, Gems of War will open strategy gaming to a whole new audience. Gems of War will also take full advantage of social features to make the game even more amazing than the developer’s previous break-out title, Puzzle Quest.
KNOWLEDGE QUEST MOBILE
Genre Educational
Media Saints
Developers Michael Woods, Per Bredenberg, Liam Rott, David McLeod, Mark Coombes
Synopsis Knowledge Quest Mobile brings together the worlds of education and gaming as a fun way to master key English literacy skills. KQ Mobiledraws on the power of digital learning to create an interactive, fun and fully supported online English game. With literacy being such a vital component in students’ education, KQ helps motivate and engage students to improve their literacy confidence by providing a new and exciting environment in which to explore in depth the core English language elements of grammar, punctuation, vocabulary, spelling and reading, and comprehension. KQ Mobile will introduce a world of opportunity for students to improve their English skills in an agile format suitable for all global curricula and testing frameworks, such as CEF, TOEFL, CCS, IELTS, as well as our very own NAPLAN.
LOCOMOTIVATION
Genre Puzzle
Garoo Games
Developers Derek Proud, Stephane Bertout, Aaron Hoffman
Synopsis In Locomotivation, you use your team of hyperactive engineers to build a train line to Central Station! You will need all your wits to stay ahead of the train, deliver the most passengers, and pick up the most coins along the way. Collect special abilities, including lumberjacks to cut down trees, energy drinks to speed up your team, or bridge builders to cross rivers and lakes.
MUSE
Genre Adventure
Current Circus
Developers Andrew Jones, Jake Savona, Jim Moynihan, Josh Jenkins, Josh Birse, Keir Meikle, Marcelo Zerwes, Paul Seedy, Peter Burns, Stefan Allaki, Yossi Landesrocha
Synopsis Muse is a single-player audio-visual experience, a genre-bending adventure game and a collaborative creative playground. In the game, players take the role of a young inspirational deity, a Muse. Players are urged to explore an emergent musical world and balance its driving forces, the Wonder Muses.
NINJA PIZZA GIRL
Genre Platformer, action
Disparity Games
Developers Nicole Stark, Jason Stark, Bruno Rime, Raven Stark
Synopsis In the not-too-distant future, rampant urban congestion has resulted in only one way of delivering a pizza across town in 20 minutes or less…. underpaid teenage ninjas! Ninja Pizza Girl follows one such pizza ninja and her family Pizzeria’s struggle for independence against the uncontested might of the pizza mega-corporations. Ninja Pizza Girl features an old-school action platformer vibe, a health system that tracks Ninja Pizza Girl’s self esteem, upgradable ninja skills, comic cut-scenes, and a storyline that’s thought-provoking and funny.
OSCURA: ADVENTURES IN THE DRIFTLANDS
Genre Platformer, action-adventure
Chocolate Liberation Front
Developers Frank Verheggen, Dan Fill, Ole Alfheim, Stuart Flanagan
Synopsis Oscura: Adventures in the Driftlands is the follow-up to Oscura. In this exciting action-platform game the player uses light-based game mechanics to guide an unlikely hero on a quest to bring light to a dark and magical world. A series of unfortunate events has plunged the world into darkness and given our lead character – the impetuous Oscura – an eternal flaming hand, as well as the responsibility to save the world from his evil nemesis, who is determined to take over the Driftlands.
ROTORHEAD
Genre Action, first-person shooter
Trickstar Games
Developers Mike Fegan, Tony Parkes, Andrei Nadin, Tommy Mayer
Synopsis Rotorhead is an action flying game with fast-paced, action-oriented cinematic gameplay, which places the player in command of one of the most deadly pieces of military hardware – an assault gunship. Take control of the sky as you and your squad – a crusty band of ex-special-ops warhorses known collectively as ‘Rotorheads’ – make sure no man is left behind.
SIEGECRAFT COMMANDER
Genre Strategy, tower defence
Blowfish Studios
Developers Benjamin Lee, Aaron Grove, Glen Forrester
Synopsis Siegecraft Commander is a new strategy game in the Siegecraft™ universe for one to four players, in which player action, whether building, attacking or defending, is achieved by flinging a projectile from a tower. Players must carefully plan the location of the towers and walls of their fortress network, because walls connecting launched towers may not intersect and if a tower is destroyed, all towers built by that tower (or built by its children) are eliminated in a cascade of destruction. Simple controls and an easy-to-learn set of game units interact in subtle ways to yield a rich tactical experience.
SNOW SPIN
Genre Endless Runner
Ezone
Developers Simon Edis, Jamie Edis
Synopsis In Snow Spin, our little hero stumbles upon a giant mammoth frozen in a block of ice while exploring. His lifelong search for a preserved mammoth is finally over. In his excitement he strikes his pick axe into the massive ice block, smashing it to pieces and releasing a fully thawed and now angry mammoth! Jumping on his trusty snowboard, the explorer makes his escape and takes to the safety of the slopes – but not for long… The grumpy mammoth is hot on his trail and ready to turn him into an explorer-shaped pancake!
TOWNCRAFT
Genre Strategy, city-builder
Flat Earth Games
Developers Leigh Harris, Rohan Harris, Joshua Wright
Synopsis TownCraft is a genre-blending game which takes grass roots crafting mechanics (popularised by games like Minecraft), and uses them as the foundation for a much larger city-builder game, where the player runs their own medieval town. Each map is procedurally generated, meaning that no two games will ever be the same. It’s a game about exploration and discovery, completely free of distractions like survival elements, scores and achievements, and in-app purchases – all are done away with to give a very pure gameplay experience.
ZOMBIE OUTBREAK SIMULATOR (for Android)
Genre Simulation
Binary Space
Developers Saxon Druce, James Filippone
Synopsis Zombie Outbreak Simulator is a sandbox app where you can customise your own zombie outbreak in real world locations! Watch a zombie outbreak unfold in 20 different real world environments and then bomb them into the ground with Mk81 and Mk82 bombs, delivered by A-10 Tank Killers! Keep track of ‘zombies killed’ and unfortunate ‘collateral damage’ statistics. Alter the outbreak parameters to your liking; customise your own outbreak then watch the chaos unfold. Zoom in and out on the action to keep track of the infection as it spreads across the map! Keep track of the people’s only hope, local law enforcement, as they fight back against overwhelming odds.
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