After seven years without any federal government support for the games industry, a new grant program called the $6 million Games Expansion Pack from Screen Australia was announced on Friday last week.

This program replaces a successful but prematurely cancelled fund called the Australian Interactive Games Fund which was axed when this government came to power in 2014.

Our guests on this episode are

• Paul Turbett of Black Lab Games, one the original recipients of the AIGF, speaks of the huge impact this small funding had on his business
• Ron Curry of IGEA, Australia's peak game development body, shares the campaigning and lobbying it took to bring this fund to life
• Lee Naimo, Head of Online at Screen Australia, runs through why it happened now and how it all works
• and John Daskalopoulos, CEO of Not Doppler, who was part of the funding announcement with Minister Paul Fletcher shares how much of a difference this funding could have made, and what opportunities it'll allow now

SIFTER is produced by Nicholas Kennedy, Kyle Pauletto, Fiona Bartholomaeus, Daniel Ang & Adam Christou. Mitch Loh is Senior Producer and Gianni Di Giovanni is our Executive Producer.

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