3 February 2010 VICTORIA’S GAMES SECTOR DOWNLOADS $240,000 TO DEVELOP INNOVATIVE PROJECTS

Film Victoria today announced $244,450 in funding support to four Victorian businesses as part of its new Downloadable Games Initiative and established Digital Media Prototyping program.

This latest injection of development funding includes the first three recipients of Film Victoria’s Downloadable Games Initiative, which provides support for content creators to develop a prototype for online distribution.

The Downloadable Game projects, receiving a total of $96,650, are:

• Touch My Pixel, DEADSUN – a puzzle game set in world where the sun no longer exists. To survive, players need to gather radioactive energy as it flows out of the sky.
• Tin Man Games, GAMEBOOK ADVENTURES – a ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ style series with written and illustrated interactive stories, where players choose the direction of the story.
• Khrob Edmonds, iNCOMING – using GPS, iNCOMING allows players to fire virtual missiles at each other's handsets. When a player is shot at, the distance of the missile is displayed in realtime, giving players the opportunity to avoid it.

Film Victoria CEO Sandra Sdraulig explained the significance of this injection into the Victorian downloadable games industry. “The Victorian game development community is world renowned for its innovation and capability in mobile games. During 2009, Melbourne companies developed three of the top 10 selling iPhone games, including the chart topping SIMS 3. We believe this development funding will enable some of Victoria’s smaller studios to compete in this lucrative global marketplace.”

The latest round of Digital Media Protoyping support provides $147,800 to:

• Andre Spierings, BUNNI SOCIAL – learning from the enormous popularity of the original title, Bunni: How We First Met, Bunni Social uses Facebook to embrace the world of social gaming. Players build a village and invite friends’ avatars to live and work in that village.

“We’re proud to be the only screen agency to provide significant funding support for the development of games content in Australia,” Ms Sdraulig continued. “Victoria is at the forefront of game content prototyping, and continues to strengthen as a hub of creative and talent.

“The Digital Media Prototyping program is vital to this growth, ensuring that projects such as these are allowed to develop to maturity in Australia – rather than be lured, or be commercially forced overseas.”

To stay informed of future funding opportunities, subscribe to Film Victoria’s e-news online at www.film.vic.gov.au or on twitter http://twitter.com/filmvictoria. Funding guidelines and application forms are available via the website.