Creators Fund is a program funded through Creative Victoria that provides support to independent creatives and small collectives across the arts, including the games industry. It is designed to support creatives furthering their careers by allowing them to undertake a sustained period of intensive research and development, or experimentation. Recently, Creative Victoria released an FAQ for gamemakers who are interested in applying. Let’s take a look at what game devs need to know.
WHO CAN APPLY?
Creators Fund is available to independent creative practitioners and collectives – including those working within a games studio. While it is open to people with varying levels of experience, applicants are expected to be able to demonstrate at least three years of experience in the games industry in a creative, development or production role, or that their application will include collaborators with a comparative level of experience.
The primary focus of the proposal must be for Victorian-based individuals or collectives, and for creative ideas or activity.
What funding can I apply for?
An applicant to the Creators Fund can apply for between $20,000 and $50,000, to be used from July 2021 onwards, plus access costs of up to $10, 000 to make their activity accessible to a wider audience, such as captioning, audio description, and funding to publish materials in other formats.
Deaf and Disabled applicants may also apply for up to $10,000 in addition, in order to cover any additional specific access costs that will help remove barriers to access.
This funding is intended to support the wages of one or more individuals during a specific period of intensive work. The funding cannot be spent retroactively, or and the Creators Fund cannot be used to fund conferences, competitions, awards, or any fundraising activities. Successful applicants must follow the correct protocols when working with First Peoples.
Applicants looking for funding for specific projects, or marketing and distribution should apply to Film Victoria’s funding pool instead, as this fund is specifically for the professional development of individuals and collectives.
READ: Film Vic funds eight new Australian games
What activities can CREATIVE VICTORIA’s creators fund support?
Creators Fund dovetails nicely with Film Victoria’s funding of Victorian games. Simply put, rather than supporting the development and marketing of games content (which is supported by Film Victoria’s funding programs), Creators Fund provides support for developers or studios to dedicate their time to pre-creation research and development, or experimentation.
This can include:
- Research into developing on or for new platforms, systems, or engines
- Creative research into new projects and production methodologies, including practice-based experimentation
- Developing industry relationships that will lead to expansion into other industries, such as working with the non-entertainment application of games in medical and/or scientific research, or social and community engagement collaborations
- Multidisciplinary research, and collaborations on opportunities within the entertainment industry, such as collaborations between games and film
This fund is designed to be flexible to a particular studio, project or individual’s creative needs, so please call program staff to discuss your research and development idea.
To discuss an application please contact Chloe Turner, Senior Arts Officer, at chloe.turner@creative.vic.gov.au or by phone on (03) 8683 3179. The Creators Fund program guidelines are available in full.
