Digital Games Seed Development Program

Targeted at emerging and small-medium enterprise digital game creators, the fund will provide a grant of up to $30,000 for early-stage game development.

The funds could also be used to cover scoping technical requirements of a games project, exploring commercial, creative and market potential, as well as pitch materials.

The objectives of the program are to:

• Support NSW game creators to advance early concept original digital games IPs to reach the next stage of development
• Assist successful applicants to prepare their project to raise additional finance for full-scale development
• Encourage sustainable growth for the NSW games sector and a diverse pipeline of game talent in NSW.

All applicants need to fulfil the following criteria:

• If an individual, the applicant must be a NSW resident (i.e., lived and operated in NSW for at least six months immediately before the application)
• If a company, the applicant must be incorporated in Australia and taken to be registered in NSW, have their central management and control in Australia and carry out business in Australia
• Applicants must have an ABN
• Applicants must not be full-time secondary or tertiary students; or employing students who are currently studying games, or a field related to games. Part-time students are assessed on a case-by-case basis.
• Applicants who are an employee of a Federal or state or territory government screen agency are not eligible to apply
• An applicant cannot be a licensee of a service under the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (Cth) or a related body corporate of such a licensee (as defined in the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth))
• Applicants must have the right to carry out the project, for example, own or have the licenses of any relevant copyright. If the application is based on a third-party underlying work, applicants must have an appropriate option agreement.  Applicants must be able to demonstrate they have the necessary rights if required by providing chain of title documents.
• Applicants must have a project team member with a key creative credit on at least one game that has been released to the general public e.g. Steam, itch.io
• There can be only one application for a particular game. If more than one NSW developer is working on the project, a joint application for the game will need to be made.

Eligible games must be:

• Intended for public release
• At concept or early-stage development
• Completely digital.

Eligible games for funding include:

• Games for entertainment and serious games
• Games for any platform including console, desktop, tablet, mobile, VR/AR
• Multi-player and single-player games.