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Future of Australia's video game development industry Submission 102 I, Simon Joslin, as a co-founder of The Voxel Agents would like to put forth recommendations for the senate enquiry from the point of view of an independent game developer who has been making original intellectual property successfully for seven years. We believe there is huge opportunity for the Australian games industry. Although our industry is small relative to the major countries, we continue to produce hugely successful titles and have a very strong track record as a creative nation who continues to innovate and adapt. The fully capitalise on the opportunity we have we need better access to investment, a more diverse development culture, and support to overcome our distance from the major centers of the world. To capitalise on the opportunities available to Australian game developers, I recommend the following: 1. Bring back the funding program for the creation of original intellectual game properties This program is hugely important to enable teams to create bigger, more adventurous titles and to gain the ability to become self-sustaining. It is very much possible for studios with great talent to produce original games, retain the profits and create a self-sustaining business. Within Australia there is very little understanding from commercial investors. However the program that the previous government began has already demonstrated the ability of the Australian industry to turn a small amount of support into a significant return on investment. However without this program we have a distinct lack of funding available in our country to capitalise on the talent that we have locally. Games are a very unique product with the ability to take a small investment and turn it into a very significant return. Australian games like Fruit Ninja, Flight Control, Real Racing, Antichamber, Ski Safari, Train Conductor, Crossy Road all were made with less than a few hundred thousand dollars but returned in the millions, some are now in the hundreds of millions of revenue. There is huge opportunity on the table, but we are missing the boat! Help Australian developers continue this huge run of success. With funding we will find scores of new talented developers take off and create self-sustaining business that bring in huge revenues to our country. 2. Extend the Producer Offset to include games Extending the producers offset will encourage large and small developers to flock to Australia, like they already do to other countries with the same tax incentives. Without the offset we are at a disadvantage from attracting the types of large studios we need to round out our development culture. We need large studios to incubate upcoming developers, to train and to diversify skill sets that then cross-polinate into other teams, and become freelancers who help many teams. Big studios are really important for skill advancement across the entire industry. 3. Support precincts We are situated in a development cluster and it is tremendously useful to our team. We learn from each other, and together we mutually grow faster, and we are more productive because there is always someone in the building who can help solve a problem. We would love to have other creative industries follow our model so we can get to know them better too, and help them and receive their help too. Future of Australia's video game development industry Submission 102 4. Support the digital economy Australia should invest in the creation of intellectual property of all kinds, but especially types that are relatively light on the environment, have great potential for international virality and to grow exponentially without an equal increase in labour/effort/expense, and ones that can maintain full domestic ownership. Games are exactly that product. Our disadvantage here in Australia is that we are physically quite far from all the major centers of the world. Our closest is still a 10 hour plane ride. The programs that help close that game are immensely helpful. We hope the government sees the potential sitting on the table and chooses to act soon! Good luck with the review. Regards, Simon.