Culture ministry launches new digital games fund

The launch of a new call for projects under the Malta Digital Games Fund has been announced by Culture Minister Owen Bonnici during an event held at the Takeoff Business Incubator at the University of Malta.

The event was also addressed by the Rector of University, Juanito Camilleri and by the Director of the Takeoff Business Incubator, Anton Bartolo.

 For the first time this year, the Malta Digital Games Fund will be collaborating with the Takeoff Business Incubator to provide a more holistic support to beneficiaries.

Bonnici said the collaboration should open the path to further synergies between the various stakeholders in the games.

“In the space of a few years, the digital games sector has emerged as a very promising dimension of our creative enterprise sector, generating employment, and opening up opportunities for internationalisation and innovation. Government is hereby re-affirming its commitment to this sector through the launch of this Fund,” Bonnici said.

The Fund, which is managed and administered by the Culture Directorate within the Ministry for Justice, Culture and Local Government, consists of a €100,000 allocation aimed at supporting the development of digital games by Malta-based start-ups and small companies operating in the digital games sector.

As an initiative addressing enterprises in the Creative Economy, it ultimately aims to strengthen digital games as a cultural and creative product and to promote Malta as a hub of digital creativity.

Selected projects can be supported with up to a maximum of €40,000 for their projects, constituting not more than 75% of their project costs. The grant may be awarded to digital game companies for the development of a digital game i.e. mobile, tablet, PC, console-downloadable, casual, Flash or browser/online games. The development support is expected to encourage the artistic, financial and technical prospects of the project. 

 Eligible costs for support under the scheme include design, writing and storyboarding, creation of programme content, definition of the visual concepts (characters, backgrounds) and sounds, realisation of a demo or the realisation of a playable prototype game, research and initial marketing. Companies, partnerships and cooperatives registered in Malta as operating primarily in the area of games / entertainment / media / ICT are eligible to apply.

The call for projects is open until the 27th of June 2014, with announcement of the selected projects expected to take place by the beginning of August.

Guidelines for applicants and application forms are available for download online here www.digitalgamesfund.gov.mt or by contacting the Culture Directorate by email on  [email protected]  or by telephone on 22915073.

An information session for prospective applicants will be taking place at the Takeoff Business Incubation, University of Malta, on Monday 19th May at 6pm. Attendance is free and registrations are open by contacting the Culture Directorate on [email protected]