It’s fairly common knowledge that if you want to do anything creative in Australia, stay far away from New South Wales. Victoria, Queensland and South Australia all have well-documented systems in place to encourage and fund people’s creative projects (and Sydney has lockout laws that should never have existed). Regardless, South Australia is kicking butt again for the video games industry in Australia with an extension of the Post-Production, Digital and Visual Rebate which allows video game developers (like Juicy Cupcake, the team behind Brief Battles) to apply for a ten percent [10%] rebate on production expenditure.
This is a first for the Australian video games industry and comes in addition to the innovation fund which allows developers based in South Australia to apply for a $25,000 grant, a huge boon for these smaller projects. According to David Ridgway, the South Australian Minister for Trade and Investment, this rebate will “bolster the long-term growth of local players and other industries using the same technologies.”
Perhaps one of the most notable developers to come from South Australia is Team Cherry, the team that made the indie metroidvania darling Hollow Knight and actively working on its sequel, Hollow Knight Silksong. This grant serves the benefit teams like Team Cherry and even smaller studios who are yet to release their passion projects, setting them up with more contract work or having more freedom for individual pursuits.
While all the details have not been revealed as of yet, the SAFC (South Australian Film Corporation) has promised that more details will be available in the coming weeks.
Jordan lives and breathes Dark Souls, even though his favourite game is Bloodborne. He takes pride in bashing his face on walls and praising the sun. Hailing from the land of tacos, he is the token minority for WellPlayed.
