The Korea Creative Content Agency announced a budget of 22.4 billion won ($20 million) to promote the local games industry and produce global game content.

The budget, which is a significant increase from last year's 14.7 billion won last year, will be used to fund four different sectors -- general games, functional games, new technology-based games and new market-creating games. The total number of projects to receive funding also increased to 66, from 46 last year.
 
Of the 22.4 billion won, 11.1 billion won will be allotted to the general games sector to provide the necessary funds for different platforms, including mobile games, PC games and cutting-edge games that employ virtual reality, augmented reality or mixed reality.

The newly created technology-based games sector will receive 4.8 billion won to go toward funding games that use new technologies like blockchain, the cloud and artificial intelligence, among others. Companies that use blockchain technology and cloud technology in game creation can each receive up to 500 million won, while those that use artificial intelligence technology can receive up to 600 million won each.

The new market-creating games sector has been allotted 4.4 billion won. Platforms like game consoles and arcade games that are having a relatively difficult time will receive funding to create ways to build a new market. Consoles, which have a relatively long production period, will be supported per different stages of development, with a maximum of 150 million won funding for the planning stage and 400 million won for the release stage. The creation of board games will be funded with up to 70 million won per project.

Finally, 2.1 billion won will be allocated for the functional games sector to fund games with special purposes like those for the elderly or that serve a public purpose. Games that are created for education, sports, fashion and other purposes can apply for funding under this category as well.

The selected games are eligible to receive a focus group test where users and experts from Korea and abroad judge and play the games before their release to discover bugs and system errors.

Applications for funding will be accepted until March 10 via the KOCCA website (www.kocca.kr).

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and KOCCA will explain the funding project in detail on Friday through the KOCCA YouTube channel.

By Lim Jang-won (ljw@heraldcorp.com)