Government of SA Decides to Invest in Video Games
When I woke up this morning and checked my YouTube feed I noticed a very surprising video by local television network “Channel 9” about a government video game grant. So naturally I watched the video and I was very surprised to find out that the government of the state of South Australia is offering a significant financial grants for local game developers to create video games. They stated that the video game industry is worth more than the movie and music industry combined. Following the success of a locally produced game Hollow Knight: Silksong for PC and new consoles (PS4, PS5, etc) by a small indie developer Team Cherry, had more people download and play the game than the entire population of Adelaide (the capital of South Australia), about 5 million compared to the city population of 1.5 million. We don’t usually cover non-retro related news however this grant could possibly extend to retro games too if developers of retro games are able to successfully apply for a grant.
Can Small Indie Developer Retro Game Projects Qualify?
There are a lot of very specific guidelines that have to be met to be able to qualify for the grant. It is technically possible for retro game projects to qualify if they are available in digital format and sold worldwide, which is easy enough. A retro game that is also available for PC can qualify, so for example a game made for the Game Boy DMG that is also available for the PC could potentially qualify. The game must be produced entirely in South Australia, it must be original and the rights to IP must be owned by the developer. The main requirement where smaller developers may struggle with is the project scale minimum spend which is $250K AU. Many kickstarter projects get much more than that to cover production costs, so in theory it would be possible. For more information see the link below to get the full requirements for how to qualify for the grant below.
Relevant Links
- Channel 9 News Video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1aohiSR5Ko] Report about video game industry government grant boost
- South Australian small indie game developer Team Cherry’s website [https://www.teamcherry.com.au/games] The team behind the immensely successful Hollow Knight: Silksong
- South Australian Film Corporation website [https://www.safilm.com.au/games/] Requirements and guidelines regarding the game developer grant can be found here
