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Screen Australia announces All Media Program recipients

Screen Australia have announced the recipients of their new All Media Program with a handful of local games developers making the list. $3-5 million program was launched earlier this year to encourage interactive or multiplatform, innovative storytelling.

The games developers included in the twelve selected to receive funding for their projects are very capable and experienced developers who, when combined, come from a range of notable studios including Pandemic Studios, Irrational Games, Infinite Interactive, Torus, and more. For Melbourne-based independent games developer, Brawsome, the funding means a great deal on the level of polish for their current title in the works, MacGuffin's Curse...

"It means we get a little more time to work on it. Particularly taking some time to polish the game rather than just frantically rushing to fix bugs and ship it. As usual we're doing all we can to make the funding go the distance (read: working for as little as possible), so the release date for MacGuffin's Curse will be moved to post-GDC 2012."

The games developers and their projects to look out for are:

MACGUFFIN’S CURSE
Developer: Brawsome
Puzzle game for computer and handheld devices
Producer Andrew Goulding
Check Credits Andrew Goulding, Ben Kosima
Marketplace Steam
Synopsis MacGuffin’s Curse puts you in the shoes ofmagician-come-thief Lucas MacGuffin who swipes a mysterious amulet in a bungled heist, which not only triggers the troubled city of Feyre into automated lockdown, but also curses him with the power to save it from corruption.

QUICK QUEST
Developer: Defiant Development
Action-role playing game for touch screen devices
Producer Morgan Jaffit
Synopsis Quick Quest sends players on task-driven fantasy-themed quests through a ‘rune-gate’ in order to face the challenges that lie there, with each mission influencing the wider narrative context of the political machinations of the town of Tyr.

NEPTUNE’S PRIDE
Developer: Iron Helmet
Online strategy game
Producer Jay Kyburz
Synopsis Players take on the role of leaders of their star system in an unstable galaxy where no one is to be trusted. While fleets manoeuvre for position, the real battle is fought at the negotiating table. What promises will you make, and will you keep them? Are you the hero in this story, or the villain?

PELEDA
Developer: Vishus Productions
Online game and short animation series
Producer Luke Jurevicius
Writer/Directors Luke Jurevicius, Nathan Jurevicius
Game Developer Fiasco
Marketplace ABC
Synopsis Peleda is set in a highly stylised fantasy world that pits good against evil as players try to reclaim the land from an evil queen.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 21/10/11 - 3:11 PM Permalink

I would of assumed that Defiant Development would get it for Warco, so far the most interesting title being made in Australia that's been announced.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 22/10/11 - 3:43 PM Permalink

I find the whole thing irritating. I only found out about their revised grants a month after the deadline to put an application in -- they moved from a "apply when you're ready" to "apply by this date" requirement.

As far as I am aware, they didn't bother to notify any gaming publication about the changes in their funding scheme, or any that I visit on a regular basis -- like Tsumea.

Submitted by souri on Tue, 25/10/11 - 3:31 PM Permalink

Unfortunately, I didn't receive any information on this, and I'm pretty sure the reason they didn't actively contact us or places like us to promote this particular funding initiative is because it looks to be aiming for a much broader area than games development.

I guess the best way to keep informed (myself included), is to follow their twitter account at @ScreenAustralia, however, you're going to get a whole lot of news concerning the film and tv industry when you just want the latest updates on the All Media program.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 26/10/11 - 1:22 PM Permalink

Exactly why I don't bother to. I get barraged with enough information on a daily basis that I have no interest in.

Still, you'd think that since it is open to game devs, that they'd make more effort to be more "inclusive" no matter what the past might have been like ;).

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 02/11/11 - 12:00 PM Permalink

Also worth signing up for their e-Newsletter. It's a bit rich to grumble that you don't know what they offer if you purposely avoid simple means of finding out, and just expect everything to fall in your lap.