Funds help local players get in the game

The recent announcement of a $2 million games fund from Screenwest and the state’s first official delegation to Gamescom in Germany mark a significant boost for the games sector after years of neglect.

Until now, Screenwest funding excluded video games, so this announcement comes as welcome news for local game developers who have the potential to tap into this massive global market, which is expected to be worth $US321 billion by 2026, according to PwC’s Global Entertainment and Media Outlook report.

Gamescom

For those outside of the industry, Gamescom may mean little, if anything. But with more than 250,000 attendees at last month’s event in Cologne, Germany, it’s the largest and probably the most important business show for the global games industry.

Thanks to Screenwest’s first-ever travel grant, Black Lab, Hungry Sky,

Big Bench Games, EarthLingo and SpaceDraft were able to attend this year’s Gamescom, with booths in the Australian pavilion, thanks to the support of Austrade, the Interactive Games and Entertainment Association, and a host of state-level funding bodies.

SpaceDraft chief executive Lucy Cooke says it was a huge privilege for her and her team to be at Gamescom 2022.

With more than 60,000 users, SpaceDraft is a no-code pre-production tool to quickly create mockups for 3D spaces, including games, virtual reality and, of course, the metaverse.

Think Canva (another Perth unicorn), but for games.

“The best takeaway for my team was getting the exposure as to why we’re building what we’re building, because they can’t come to every meeting,” Ms Cooke told Business News.

“But by being at a booth and having people come past and being able to present and pitch on the fly means now my team just knows what we’re doing for the industry.

"We are solving a global problem with our product.”

State of play

Screenwest chief executive Rikki Lea Bestall said the timing of the $2 million games and interactive fund was designed to build the capacity of the local industry and enable a greater number of WA games developers to access the federal digital games tax offset.

“With Australia being the official partner country of Gamescom 2022, it was also perfect timing for us to support a WA delegation to attend,” she said.

“Together with the state government, we want to capitalise on the fantastic talent here in WA; the time is now.”

Screenwest was developing the guidelines for its $2 million games funding program, with applications accepted later this year, Ms Bestall said.

This support, and appointment of Caitlin Lomax as Screenwest’s games and interactive program consultant, begins to fill the gap left by the closure of the Film and Television Institute in 2017.

When the FTI shut down, it put an end to WA’s only games and interactive program, which I created as the institute’s first (and sadly last) director of games and interactive.

The closure took with it the state’s only games co-working space and only games funding and support program.

Brain drain

While these new announcements are a critical and important step in the right direction, the local games industry still says it needs a lot more support, especially around funding, investor education and creating a culture that is supportive and safe for female-founded startups and game studios.

“When it comes to grants, we don’t even get acknowledged as innovation or anything here, because we’re not a pair of secateurs or pliers or rocks and crops,” said Ms Cooke, adding that SpaceDraft was knocked back for an Australian commercialisation grant in 2021 and 2022.

“We’re going to have to move if we don’t get some more support … unless we get more state support, we’ll likely set up a head office in Singapore, send our developers to Tel Aviv through the landing pad program and just go global now.

“Because this state doesn’t understand what it means to have a global product.”

The brain drain is real, with several key WA studios having already relocated to Melbourne, the games industry capital of Australia.

And the Perth-born Canva?

They’ve already left. Indeed, the time is now to create a new future for our state.

• Dr Kate Raynes-Goldie is a multi-award-winning keynote speaker, certified LEGO Serious Play facilitator, and the creator of SUPERCONNECT, a play-based methodology for unleashing creativity, curiosity and human connection