Screen Australia announces $1.4 million funding for local games

Screen Australia has announced a new funding initiative providing support for 26 games being created by Australian developers. Funding will also be going towards the Freeplay 2025 Events Series, a series of events for local developers to network and learn new skills.

“Digital games are a billion dollar global industry and Australia’s sector is growing every year,” Tony Burke, Minister for the Arts said in a press release. “This funding ensures that we’re backing home-grown talent in order to be at the top of the leader board.”

Screen Australia has injected $3 million into the Australian game development industry since 2024 via the Games Production Fund and the Emerging Gamemakers Fund, as well as initiatives such as the Future Leaders Delegation supporting Australian developers to promote their games internationally as well as funding local events and festivals spotlighting Australian projects.

Screen Australia Head of Games Joey Egger remarked on the “diversity of our culture, communities, landscapes and stories” that shines through in the games that this funding is supporting. He notes that it has been “incredibly exciting” to see supported games progress from the Emerging Gamemakers Fund through to the Games Production Fund. “It reinforces our unique position as an end-to-end avenue for Australian gamemakers to take their projects from concept to prototype, to production and then launch,” he states.

A full list of the games supported by the Games Production Fund can be found here. Some of the list of funded games include:

• Ashes (VIC): For fans of graphic novels and interactive fiction, seasoned players and those new to games, comes adventure game Ashes. The creative team includes producer/developer Clea Frost, lead developer Nick Loki, 2D artists Phoenix Waddell and Jennifer Reuter and composer Trent Francis. It follows 16-year-old skater Azar Warren who, after witnessing a murder, takes refuge in a rural compound with her estranged grandfather.
• Buru and The Old People (NSW): A narrative-driven adventure game set in a vibrant anthropomorphic world rich in Indigenous storytelling. Buru and The Old People is from creative director and recipient of the ‘Rising Star’ award at the 2024 Australian Game Developer Awards Benjamin Armstrong, producer Brooke Collard (Yokai), 2D artist Letoya Muraru, and composer Alexander Tulett.
• Nothing To Do Summer Vacation – Part 1 (NT): A unique point and click visual novel game from lead programmer Adam Prenger and creative director Mel Stringer, an accomplished illustrator and comic artist making her exciting debut in games. In this game, Summer is bored out of her mind in the small town of Driftwood, until fresh mysteries come calling to be uncovered.
• Penguin Colony (VIC): A stylish action-adventure game from producer Megan Faulkner, audio engineer David Mason and creative director Naphtali Faulkner, the developer behind the Independent Games Festival Grand Prize-winning Umurangi Generation. In Penguin Colony, players explore the depths of Antarctica at their own pace as different penguins – unravelling difficult truths along the way.
• Retopia (NSW): From creative lead Jennyfer Ong, lead designer Nicholas King and lead producer James Lockrey, this cosy management game is the latest project from the Australian Game Developer Awards’ 2024 Studio of the Year, Chaos Theory Games. Retopia follows a cast of quirky robot companions as they restore life to a collapsed world by salvaging lost technology, rebuilding community, and nurturing a floating sanctuary in the sky. The game continues Chaos Theory’s tradition of values-driven development after the success of the award-winning Crab God.

• Fern: Seed Guardian (WA): An action-adventure RPG from creative director Sophie Till and technical director Jamie Dougall. In a fantastical Australian bushland, a brave native mouse battles an encroaching, mysterious goo.  She must overcome not only this encroaching danger but also her deep fears, as the Goo uses them to manipulate her perception of reality.
• Slumbering Woods (QLD): An evocative, hand-drawn puzzle adventure game with a unique crafting and building twist from creative director Svitlana Amelina, lead developer Oleg Chernyshenko and sound designer Jane Wei. In a world recovering from a long-past climate catastrophe, players help a flooded village thrive, rebuild and find their way home along the way. Slumbering Woods is financed with support from Screen Queensland’s Games Grants.