AIE Incubator studios awarded $200,000 of development grants

AIE has awarded development grants to thirteen start-up studios, comprising of eleven games and two film projects, as part of the AIE Incubator Grants program. The grants to successful studios amounted to a total of $200,000 after a competitive application process that included advice from an independent industry panel.

"These development grants are a critical part of the overall support provided by the AIE Incubator program." said Gregor Whiley, AIE Incubator Producer.

All teams in AIE’s Incubator Program are eligible to apply for the grants that can be used towards whatever they need to make their project a success. The Incubator program is the on-going support program for teams that have completed AIE's entrepreneurial graduate program that teaches students how to commercialise their games and films. Known as the Graduate Diploma of Management (Learning), specialising in Games Business, the program has been responsible for launching over 70 studios, most of which have been able to secure development grants for their innovative projects.

"The grants help teams eliminate some of the barriers in getting their projects to market," said John De Margheriti, AIE CEO.

"It's these early commercial projects that are so important to a team's long term success." said Mr De Margheriti.

This is the fourth year of the grant program which to date has seen $760,000 of development grants awarded.

The studios that recieved funding included:

• Iron Guardian Games for Textbook Adventure, a heartwarming hand drawn Action/Adventure game, illustrating the imaginative world inside a child's mind.
• Radioactive Magic for My Pet Grim, a mildly menacing but mostly cute virtual pet game for mobile.
• Ludatik for Tiny Dungeons, a fast paced, dungeon running, hack and slash RPG for mobile.
• Ruffhaus for Tungsten, a Rouge-like Run and Gun game focusing on pushing your armour protection to the limits, (and possibly beyond), for PC.
• Full Steam Ahead for a low budget, high fun factor film that pays homage to 80s action films while updating the humour to the 21st Century.
• TeePee Studios for Project S.E.E.D. Prelude, a story driven, high concept SF horror film, where instant death and slow, silent extinction appear equally likely.
• Ghostbolt Games for Scrapper, a free roaming, fast flying space game for PC, where survival depends on scavenging from the shattered hulls of the unsuccessful.
• Threebeak for Sneaker, a retro themed spy stealth game for PC, where shoes are deadly and time bends to your command.
• Elston Studios for Firstborn, a turn-based tactical combat game for PC, where the environment, and not the player, does the killing. A single push is sometimes all it takes...
• Futuretechture for The Imagineer, a unique game concept for PC, where you run through the mind of an architect, as embodied in iconic buildings.
• Perfectly Normal Duck for a fiendish strategy game for PC, where crazed cultists under your command struggle for world domination.
• Dev or Die for Chroma Shift, a challenging co-op game for PC where a robot team uses colour to manipulate the world, solving puzzles that mere mortals couldn't.
• Salty Monster Studio for Dimensions Vs, a free flowing fighting game for PC, where super stylish heroes smash their bros, and anybody else who steps into the ring.