Press release from ABC TV
Screen Australia and ABC TV today announced that the Serious Game, ‘Alternator’, – a full-throttle car race in wild and whacky green-powered vehicles – will receive $325,000 and go into full production immediately.
The announcement of Alternator marks a key milestone in the Serious Games Initiative – a partnership between Screen Australia and ABC-TV to support the production of a computer game designed to have an educative message.
Alternator is a world where the harsh impacts of encroaching climate change and the fossil fuel industry are met by a valiant green technology movement. Players invent new technologies to modify their cars before they power across a future Australian landscape on mission-based battles.
The Alternator team includes game developer John Welsh from Sydac, one of Australia’s leading creators of Simulations and Serious Games; multi-award-winning writer and director Bryan Moses (Double The Fist, Fly TV) who will inject his own distinct humour into the game; and multi-platform producer, Dean Tuttle.
Head of ABC TV Arts and Entertainment, Amanda Duthie, said environmental issues and energy sustainability were on everyone’s minds and Alternator provided a different way of educating people about these important issues.
“As well as giving our audience a unique gaming experience, Alternator will raise awareness of this global challenge,” she said.
“We are really excited about moving into this territory and hope this initiative will spawn the next generation of digital program makers in the gaming world.”
Martha Coleman, Head of Development, Screen Australia said: “Supporting collaboration between film and TV talent and digital media expertise is a key strategy for facilitating the creation of innovative content for newer platforms.
“We are thrilled to back the Alternator team to deliver an important message in such a highly entertaining and interactive way."
Alternator has an anticipated release date of November 2010 and will be hosted by ABC online.
The Screen Australia and ABC TV Serious Game Initiative received an impressive 52 Serious Games proposals when a call for creative collaborations was circulated earlier this year.
The proposals addressed a broad range of issues from binge drinking to bushfire survival techniques, healthy living, science, education and the environment to name just a few.
Five teams were then selected to attend a Serious Games workshop featuring a number of international mentors including the “Father of Serious Games”, Noah Falstein.
The five teams went on to further develop and consolidate their game ideas into a game design document from which Alternator was chosen.