GROUNDBREAKING GAME DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE RETURNS

Photo credit: Gubbins.

Today, the Minister for Creative Industries Colin Brooks opened applications for the second year of Originate Games. 

Launched in 2023, Originate Games champions Victorian game developers who have projects in early stages of development to fine-tune their work, with the future goal of publishing their game to be enjoyed by millions of gamers around the world.  

Victorian developers will be able to apply for grants up to $50,000 to support the development of their project, providing untapped talent the resources they need to create unique and leading-edge digital games projects. 

After the success of the inaugural Originate Games, participants of the 2024 initiative will once again be mentored by industry powerhouses, learning from their invaluable expertise and receiving guidance on how to elevate their projects.  

The first instalment of Originate Games is ongoing, with an exhilarating collection of games lined up for release in the coming years. The participants of the 2023 Originate Games alumni and their projects include:

Bugging Humans

• Project: Bugging Humans is a two-player asymmetrical local co-op where you play as a blind spider and a blow fly who have teamed up to start a revolution in the backyard.
• Team: Christy Dena, Alison Walker, John Engstrom, with story consultants Christian Howard, Sky McLeod, and Tony Sarre.

Dawn Chorus (working title)

• Project: Set in a future Melbourne, Dawn Chorus (working title) is a web browser-based interactive story about ordinary people and their relationships, holding on to one another in increasingly strange times, and the ways we find both past and future reflected in the places that we live in.
• Team: Cecile Richard

Have You Seen Me?

• Project: Communicate with creatures and solve supernatural mysteries in an open-world Y2K era Melbourne. Have You Seen Me? is a supernatural detective game with mechanics involving conversation, deduction, and environmental exploration. Players take the role of Abigail, a young journalist, in an empathetic horror story with themes of mental health, spirituality, death, and belonging.
• Team: Mickey Krekelberg, Percy Harris, Chantel Eagle, Monica Keeler, Miles Lee and Asha Waterman.

The Adventures of Dolly

• Project: The Adventures of Dolly is a story-driven RPG. Jump off the tram and go for a walk down Swanston Street as you navigate your character through an alternate reality or not-so-distant future of Melbourne’s CBD.
• Team: Jarra Steel, Charlotte Allingham and Peter Adams.

Untitled Baseball Game

• Project: After many years abroad, you return home in Winter to the inner-western suburbs of an alternate-reality/high-fantasy Melbourne. After spending time exploring and reminiscing, you rekindle relationships with your old high-school classmates and decide to collectively join a local baseball team. Through this you re-connect with a version of yourself left behind years ago as you date, play baseball and learn more about your world than you knew was there; there is a deep mythology and history to the people and nature of inner-city Melbourne.
• Team: Sunny Tandoc, Luke Rotella, Melanie Avent and Breanna Herman.

Victoria is globally renowned as a creative hub for phenomenal and quirky games, including recent award-winning smash hits Gubbins and Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical. The continuation of Originate Games will support future generations of the sector to grow the state’s legacy of producing distinctive and celebrated content.  

Minister Creative Industries Colin Brooks said, "The calibre and creativity of the inaugural Originate Games projects has been nothing short of inspiring. We can’t wait to see these locally made games hit the world stage in future years.”

“We are excited to build on Originate Games, launching the second year of the initiative, which will continue to support our local developers to continue to generate the much-loved and diverse games, which our state is famous for.” 

VicScreen CEO Caroline Pitcher said, “VicScreen’s Originate Games initiative supports our homegrown talent to bring their bold and brilliant game ideas to life. The program has already proven to elevate new voices in digital games, and we can’t wait to unearth new talent and a new slate of projects in 2024.”

To apply or for more information about Originate Games, visit: vicscreen.vic.gov.au/funding/games/#originate-games 

Want to discuss your application? Schedule a time with VicScreen's Games team here.