While the Australian Federal Government continues to ignore the growing video game industry, Victoria is doing the exact opposite. The state this week has just announced another $550,000 to 10 projects through their Assigned Production Investment program.
The money has gone to a mix of brand new projects and existing ones. Some of the new ventures include Little Ruin, the first video game from a Melbourne-based 3D modelling and architectural animation studio. (It's a situation that sounds similar to the story behind Instinction, the attempted spiritual Dino Crisis successor out of New Zealand.)
© Provided by Kotaku AustraliaImage: Little Ruin
Existing projects that have gotten extended funding include Wayward Strand, the post-apocalyptic RPG Broken Roads, and the couch co-op game Innchanted.
Here's the full list of games that have received additional funding:
© Provided by Kotaku AustraliaImage: Wayward Strand
- Broken Roads by Drop Bear Bytes
- Eternal Ones by Steel Sky Productions
- Innchanted by Dragonbear Studios
- Little Ruin by Lucernal
- OvO: Planet Engineer by Two Moos
- Site Unseen by Alexander Muscat
- Trash by 15 Minutes of Game
- Wayward Strand by Ghost Pattern
- Unannounced project by Guck
- Unannounced project by Darcy Smith & Jessica Shipard
The Victorian Government has also opened up a digital games internship program that will run for 12 months. The successful candidate will be paid to work alongside Film Victoria, as well as Melbourne studios Samurai Punk and League of Geeks. More details will be posted on the Film Victoria website at some stage, although I couldn't find a direct link to the internship application.
Applications for the games internship program close on March 25, and when I can get a link and some more details, I'll update this story. Until then, more information on Victoria's funding programs can be found on the Film Victoria website.