Live Chat recorded with Tim Watts MP, Member for Gellibrand, Victoria - Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications and Cyber Security

Interviewer:

Roger Clarke, MD - Koch Media Australia

MC:

Ron Curry, CEO - IGEA

Bio:

Tim has been the Federal Member for Gellibrand in Melbourne’s west since 2013.

Since being elected, Tim has been an active advocate on issues ranging from family violence, Australian aid, cyber security, refugee and asylum policy, cycling and Australia’s engagement with Asia.

Before entering Parliament, Tim worked in the Australian telecommunications and IT sectors for the better part of a decade.

Tim has a Masters of Science from the London School of Economics, a Masters of Public Policy and Management from Monash University and a Bachelor of Laws from Bond University.

Tim lives in Footscray with his wife and two children.

This panel will explore investment structures from international territories and how they have created a thriving game development ecosystem and what that could look like for Australian developers.

Bio:

Ron Curry, Moderator

Since joining IGEA in 2008, Ron has played an instrumental role in tackling the emerging issues surrounding interactive entertainment, and demonstrating the positive influence of computer and video games in the broader community particularly within the education and health sector.

Ron often appears in the media or fronting government to discuss the power of games to connect, empower, educate and inspire. Issues which he supports passionately include trade and export, funding, child safety, health, diversity and education. Ron has sate on many working groups, boards and roundtables including an Advisory Committee Member on the ALRC’s Classification Review and holds a seat on the government’s Consultative Working Group on Cyber Safety.

More recently, Ron took the lead in the merger between the GDAA and IGEA in 2020, which saw the two associations coming together, ensuring that there was a single unified voice representing the video games industry.

Prior to joining IGEA, Ron spent 15 years in the interactive entertainment business working for platform holders, publishers and distributors in areas as varied as sales, marketing, operations and general management. In this time Ron was also one of the founding Directors of IGEA, which was then IEAA.

Tim Scott

I joined the Ukie team as Head of Policy and Public Affairs in March 2017. Prior to this I spent twelve years in the UK Civil Service leading on Creative Industries and tech policy in the Cabinet Office and Department for Culture, Media and Sport where I was instrumental in the development and implementation of the UK’s Video Games Tax Relief and the NextGen skills report.

Samuel Berthiaume

Samuel Berthiaume is Project Director for the Asia-Pacific region at Montréal International. His role is to promote the Montréal business environment to foreign companies, supporting their set-up or expansion in Greater Montréal. Since joining Montréal International in 2018, Samuel has supported multiple international expansions in Montréal in the technological, video game, VFX, mining and life science sectors.

Previously, Samuel was a Project Director at Investissement Québec, the financial arm of the provincial government of Québec, in the tax incentive group, with a focus on technological and video game companies. Samuel holds a Bachelor of Arts from Laval University and a Master in Public Administration from the National School of Public Administration.

Christian Fonnesbech

Christian Fonnesbech, Head of IP Development @ Leverage + Narrative Director @ Deck 13.

Christian Fonnesbech has been working with game investors and developers for a decade. His main focus is IP & franchise building in games.

At Leverage, he consults on building IPs and Brands for games, and at Deck 13 he is Narrative Director, building a new IP from the ground up. Previously, he was Head of IP Development at Nordisk Film Games, the game investment arm of Egmont. In his earlier career, he was a game entrepreneur, producing and directing 35+ game projects for advertising, learning and entertainment.

How do you find the right publisher for your game? And how do you prepare a pitch that will convince them to work with you?

In this talk, Sonali will outline everything you need to prepare for a successful pitch, share insights on the key metrics publishers look for, and give you details on the materials and prototype you’ll want to present.

Indie games are rarely funded from a single source. By the end of a project, you will likely have funding from over 4-5 different places.

What are these different funding sources? How do they differ? And when you have to consider upwards of five different funding sources, how do you build a funding strategy?

This talk will outline where money can come from, what to consider when building a strategy, and when in the timeline of your project you should be going for different kinds of funding.

One thing that there’s been no shortage of is advice! Thanks to the kindness of the games community; so many professionals have been sharing their wisdom but how do you translate advice into action?

This talk features advice that I got from publishers, platform holders, investors and other developers and how I was able to translate that advice into my pitch deck. By using data that you can easily find, experience from other developers and even working in some creativity there’s many ways that you can adapt your pitch for whomever your audience is (even if they’ve pivoted their strategy)

It often gets said its not what you know but who you know. However it’s a lot easier to know people if you’re in the same place. You can easily get through the cracks; get those in person intros, grab that last minute uber seat to an exclusive party. But how do you sit next to the publisher of your dreams if there are no dinners? How do you meet new people? This talk goes through the ways of meeting new people online.

Finally there’ll also be talk on the ways in which you can put together a budget and how to account for a pandemic. There will of course be numerous resources pointed out throughout this talk as well as advice from professional producers and this talk will focus on how to get that advice into action.

An introduction to venture capital funding for the interactive entertainment industry.

It will address how VC funding works, which types of companies it typically works for, and what VCs look for in potential investments.

This panel will feature the heads of the Federal and State Screen/Industry Agencies to discuss their game vision for 2021 and beyond.

Panel:

Ron Curry, Moderator, CEO of IGEA

Caroline Pitcher, CEO of Film Victoria

Kate Croser, CEO at South Australian Film Corporation

Alex Sangston, Executive Manager of Screen Tasmania

Willie Rowe, CEO of Screenwest

Monica Penders, CEO of Screen Canberra

Kylie Munnich, CEO of Screen Queensland

Dr Christen Cornell, Research Fellow and Manager of Research Partnerships at the Australia Council for the Arts

Join this panel of experienced industry veterans as they discuss what goes into building the best pitch for your game, whether it be for grant applications, publishers or funding bodies.

Jens Schroeder:

Jens works as IGEA's Director of Industry and Member Relations.

He joined IGEA in 2019 after working as a lecturer for game design, manager of the SAE Sydney campus, Head of Academic Studies for Digital Media at Laureate Australia as well as Associate Dean (Design Vertical) for Torrens University.

Combining his experience in games, business, academia, management and leadership, Jens is responsible for representing and growing the IGEA’s development members by providing them a voice to government and industry, act as the interface between the Australian video game development industry and IGEA and work close with state, territory and commonwealth departments and agencies to the benefit of the industry.

Jens is also active in the development space; he is involved in a gamification project that aims to engage students of low socioeconomic status with tertiary education.

Liam Routt:

Liam Routt is the Manager of the Games programs at Film Victoria. He came to the agency after working in technical, design and production roles at large and small games companies in Victoria both before and after the GFC. At the funding agency, and in all things, Liam is driven to help others to achieve their goals.

While he is proud of the games which have been created in the state during his time at Film Victoria, it is the conversations they have with prospective applicants, whether experienced or new to the industry, that motivate him from week to week.

Meredith Hall:

Currently working at Film Victoria, Meredith supports the games industry locally and internationally, working on strategy, forward-planning, research, growth areas and more through programs and direct engagement with the sector.

She is an experienced marketer, producer and business developer. Meredith is the cofounder of Accessibility Unlocked, Communications Director & Lead Producer on HoloVista and a frequent public speaker and advocate. She was named one of 50 under 50 in InGames 2019 Gender Equality in Games list.

Jon Cartwright:

Jon Cartwright started making games back in the UK in the 80’s, getting titles published while he was still at school.

He’s worked for Big Red Software, Eidos plc and Blitz Games making titles for MGM, Fox Studios, Warner Bros., Nickelodeon, THQ, and SCi.

Jon moved to Brisbane in 2004 and joined THQ Studio Australia as Director of Production, managing IP and titles with Dreamworks, Games Workshop, Nickelodeon, and M Night Shymalan.

He has run R&D for technology outside the games industry and worked KIXEYE Australia in the free to play space, making MMORTS VEGA Conflict.

More recently Jon worked as Commercial Director at Prideful Sloth, helping them launch Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles initially on PS4 and PC, and followed by Switch and Xbox, and negotiated publishing deals in Japan, Korea, and China, along with full retail releases for PS4 and Switch in the US, Europe, and ANZ regions.

After securing a new publishing deal for Prideful Sloth at the beginning of 2019 Jon has been working independently, consulting with a number of clients helping them budget, schedule, pitch and close publishing and distribution for their indie games.

Liam Esler:

Liam Esler is an experienced games entrepreneur, writer, and producer from Melbourne Australia. He has worked as a producer and writer with some of the biggest brands in gaming, including Beamdog, Obsidian Entertainment, PikPok, Surprise Attack Games, and many others.

In addition to game development, Liam worked at the Game Developers’ Association of Australia for 3 years running Australia’s premiere games conference, GCAP, and was co-founder of GX Australia, a diversity-focused gaming convention that ran 2016 and 2017. He is currently the Managing Director of Summerfall Studios.

We are seeing the renaissance of the Australian games industry. New studios are opening, existing ones are expanding, and Australian games are topping charts all around the world. Even the Federal government is talking about us!

But if we look a little deeper, there are some troubling signs. The four largest studios are owned by overseas companies. The breakout hits of the last few years were all published by overseas publishers. The rapid expansion risks diluting our talent pool.

It feels like our industry is at a tipping point. This is a moment of great opportunity, but also great risk. Have we learned from the mistakes of the past? Or are we doomed to repeat them?

I find this moment to be both exhilarating, and terrifying! Like it or not, the large publishers are returning, and that raises the bar for all of us. So how can we compete? What opportunities are there for studios that want to scale and grow, to build a billion dollar brand that is Australian owned?

I will attempt to answer these questions and more, by taking stock of where we are, what opportunities we have in our immediate future, and what plans we can make for the long term to create a robust, resilient, and diverse industry.

Join Rae Johnston as she interviews Australia's own Siobhan Reddy, Studio Director at Media Molecule, the visionary team behind Little Big Planet, Tearaway and Dreams.