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Serious Games

Screen Australia and ABC TV have partnered in an initiative to support the development of three games and the production of one game.

What are serious games?

The gaming industry is growing exponentially. Many games have a purpose beyond pure entertainment. ‘Serious games’ is a broad term used to describe games for training or education. There is an exciting groundswell of serious games used as a medium to explore real-world dilemmas, delivering messages for change and raising awareness of important issues by providing an engaging and enlightening gaming experience. For more examples of serious games go to www.abc.net.au/seriousgames

What are we looking for?

Games provide a powerful opportunity to communicate with a broad, contemporary audience, so Screen Australia and ABC TV want to give the opportunity to a range of media professionals to develop and produce a serious game.

We are looking for game IDEAS that address issues that may be in the field of society and culture, health, relationships, history, science, politics or the environment. The game will explore this topic in an imaginative, creative, entertaining and innovative way, with a strong game narrative and solid underlying educative aspect.

The creative collaboration of professionals with complementary expertise can engender an environment ripe for innovation.

We encourage multi-disciplinary teams, which might include:

• a game studio, game/web developer, working with a
• documentary/factual filmmaker, or screenwriter.

For assistance in finding collaborators go to: www.abc.net.au/seriousgames

What’s on offer?

Teams will apply initially to attend a workshop to further develop their Serious Game idea, with the assistance of international and local mentors. Three teams will be selected for the workshop. Domestic travel and accommodation for key members of the three teams attending the workshop will be provided where required.

These three teams will also receive a development investment of $15,000 to consolidate their idea into a Game Design Document. The design documents will need to be delivered to Screen Australia/ABC TV within a two (2) month period of the workshop, along with a budget for full game production, demonstrating the game (and a ‘making of’ short doc/story) is achievable for $325,000.

One of these teams will then be selected to go into full production of the game, and will be provided with a budget of $325,000. The other two projects will be optioned by the ABC (see the Legal section in the Serious Games Guidelines for details).

Applicants may consider other sources of funding (in line with ABC editorial policies), but this would have to be raised within a reasonable timeframe.

The completed game will be hosted by ABC online for a specified licence period (see the ABC licence agreement section in the Serious Games Guidelines).

ABC TV will provide internal resources to assist in the project management and realisation of the game. Resources will be negotiated based on the special needs of the project. Skills provided may range from information architecture, technical compliance, aesthetic treatment, as well as project management review and acceptance testing. These resources will be made available in addition to the cash budget for the activity.

The ABC and Screen Australia are in discussion with a number of other international public broadcasters to develop an international games portal to showcase serious games from the respective countries. Successful Serious Games developed by teams participating in this initiative will be eligible to be presented via the international portal.

Deadline

APPLICATIONS CLOSE: 5pm, Friday 24 April 2009.

Successful projects will be announced in late May 2009.

The Serious Games workshop will take place during June 2009.

Development delivery items will be due in late August 2009.

Eligibility

• Teams may include a mix of documentary and/or screenwriting creatives AND game development and/or web professionals. Whilst we encourage multi-disciplinary teams, they are not essential, provided the applicants are eligible and have demonstrable skills in the appropriate fields required for their game proposal.
  
  
• Key team members must be available to attend the Serious Games workshop in June 2009.
  
  
• At least one member of the team must have game production experience.
  
  
• Key team members must have relevant credits in their chosen fields: for example, a screenwriter or a documentary filmmaker must have at least one project that has been theatrically released, broadcast on national television, or screened at a recognised film festival; a game developer/studio must have at least one produced and released game; and a web developer at least one major produced and released online project.
  
  
• Applicants must also comply with Screen Australia’s general eligibility requirements. These can be found in the Screen Australia Terms of Trade here.
  
  

Guidelines and application forms

Applicants must read the Serious Games Guidelines before submitting a complete application form with all required supporting materials.