Screen Australia’s Games Expansion Pack provides funding to local indies

Rejoice!

Screen Australia’s new Games Expansion Pack program will bring access to funding back to local independent studios for the first time since 2014.

Targeted at “games with development budgets below $500,000 [AUD],” the grants initiative will run between the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 financial years.

“The Games: Expansion Pack funding for 2021-22 is targeted at emerging or small to medium independent game developers,” Screen Australia continued. “A game studio is considered to be independent by Screen Australia if it is a private company (not listed on the ASX) and it is not majority owned or controlled by an overseas company. This also applies to any related companies.”

Eligible PC, mobile and consoles games can apply for up to $150,000 AUD of funding per application.

Games with larger budgets — those over $500,000 AUD, to be precise — are eligible for a federal Digital Games Tax Offset that comes into place from 1 July 2022.

“Screen Australia’s Games: Expansion Pack is a very welcome addition to the suite of already announced government funding for Australian game developers and signals that games are an integral part of the screen industry,” said the IGEA’s Ron Curry.

” The Federal Government has consulted very closely with IGEA and the Australian game development sector to commit to the introduction of the Digital Games Tax Offset (DGTO), a globally competitive tax incentive of 30% to be launched on 1 July 2022.  Coupled with the new Games: Expansion Pack initiative, we expect to see accelerated growth for highly creative and skilled Australian games studios and practitioners.”

Applications for the 2021-2022 financial year round of funding are being taken now and close at 5.00 pm AEST on 28 April. Those looking to apply can do so here.

For more on state and federal funding programs within Australia, head here.