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Industry assessors for Games Production announced

Press Release

Screen Australia is pleased to announce the pool of industry consultants who will assist in the assessment of the inaugural Games Production program round, which closed on 12 July.

Sarah Van Rompaey (Lady Shotgun Games), Morgan Jaffit (Defiant Development), Simon Joslin (The Voxel Agents), Siobhan Reddy (Media Molecule), and Matthew Hall (KlickTock) will assist Screen Australia’s Investment Managers, Mike Cowap and Justin Halliday, in assessing applications for the funding round.

All applications will be considered by a combination of Screen Australia executives and industry consultants as required. Industry consultants bring an external and independent perspective to Screen Australia’s processes and help ensure that assessment procedures are relevant and well informed by the current state of the industry.

The consultants’ extensive industry expertise and knowledge will assist Screen Australia in assessing applications based on the published criteria, which encompass the strength of the project, the project’s ability to enhance business sustainability, and the experience, expertise and talents of the key principals involved.

Sarah Van Rompaey

With 13 years of games industry experience in both publishing and development, Sarah has worked on every major platform since producing her first PlayStation 2 game for Infogrames Melbourne House. Since moving to the UK she has worked for Eidos and Sony on a number of successful titles, most notably as the Senior Producer of the Tomb Raider and SingStar franchises. Sarah is also co-founder of UK start-up Lady Shotgun and was recently named as one of the UK’s top 100 women in games.

Morgan Jaffit

Morgan Jaffit is a prominent game designer and producer at Queensland’s Defiant Development. Morgan has over a decade’s experience in games development, cutting his teeth at Irrational Games and Relic. He is a regular speaker on development, both locally and internationally, as well as an award-winning designer and writer. Defiant’s published work includes the international hit Ski Safari.

Simon Joslin

Simon began his games development career at Halfbrick Studios, working on Game Boy Advance, PSP and DS titles, and in 2008 he founded development company The Voxel Agents with his peer Matthew Clark. Simon drives the creative direction and studio vision at The Voxel Agents. He loves to make games that require considered thought and strategy, but in deceivingly simple and intuitive packages, such as the hit mobile game Train Conductor. He is focused on interactivity and challenge and wants to indoctrinate the mainstream with this new form of entertainment.

Siobhan Redd

Siobhan Reddy is Studio Director at Media Molecule, which created the hugely successful and innovative LittleBigPlanet game franchise. She was recently named Australian Woman of the Year in the UK and, by the BBC, one of the 100 most powerful women in the UK. Siobhan entered the games industry at 18 years of age as Production Assistant at Perfect Entertainment in the UK, working on DiscWorld Noir. By 1999, she had joined Criterion Games as Producer, where she consistently shipped high-quality titles including Burnout 3 and Burnout 4.

Matthew Hall

Matthew Hall started programming games at the age of seven, and has previously been employed at Australian developers Tantalus Interactive and Big Ant Studios. His varied career includes positions as Producer, Programmer, Designer, Artist and Chief Technical Officer, and he has published titles on iPhone, iPad, PC, Mac, Wii, Xbox, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable and mobile. Matthew established KlickTock from a rural Australian sheep farm in 2009. Since then he has developed five games, three of which have been #1 on the App Store. His titles, including hit mobile game Little Things Forever, have been downloaded 9 million times worldwide.

Screen Australia’s Conflict of Interest Policy (available on the Screen Australia website) applies both to industry specialists engaged as consultants, and to all Screen Australia staff involved in assessment or investment decision-making.