I know many of you have tried to forget it ever happened, but try to recall that horrible Q&A panel on the ABC. Not wanting to leave the issue without some expert comment from the other side, GDAA prez and Tantalus CEO Tom Crago has offered his opinion on the ABC News website. In it, he criticises not only the panel, but the classification system and Michael Atkinson.

While Crago covers ground we've talked about before, he still makes a compelling argument, and provides something most of us cannot - the point of view of a developer. From the piece:

As game developers, we are trying to make games that provide entertainment to players of all ages. Video games are not going to turn your children into criminals. They are, in fact, the modern face of the entertainment industry, and something that we in Australia are very good at producing.

The focus of this debate should be upon how the Australian classification system can best give adults the information they need to chose video game content for themselves and their children, without burdening our country with unjustified and draconian censorship to the amusement and pity of the rest of the world.

Unlike a specialist blog such as Kotaku AU, the ABC site attracts a range of personalities. Even so, most of the comments to the piece are positive, though I couldn't help but notice this rather, well, insane post:

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What makes a game "Australian"? Is this even quantifiable? On the surface, a game made by an Aussie developer should qualify. But what if the game has no Australian themes, characters, environments or accents? Take Bioshock or Puzzle Quest. Is there anything about them, other than their developer, that makes them Aussie?

Not really. So how's our country going to make its mark on the industry at large if we don't burn in the message with our games? PALGN spoke to David Hewitt and Tom Crago of Tantalus to find out.

From Hewitt's perspective:

"I actually feel as if the contribution of Australian game developers is largely under-credited. It's not an industry that generates celebrities and recognisable faces, and games developed here don't necessarily have Australian accents in them, or Australian scenery in the background. Most players would be surprised at the number of high-quality, high-profile titles that are developed here".

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Who's the guy in the tiny picture on the left? It's Tom Crago of course, president of the Game Developers' Association of Australia and CEO of (the rather successful) Tantalus.

The GDAA has been very active of late, its most recent move an alliance with the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia on the issues of classification and tax consessions.

But that's not all the organisation has been up to, so I threw a few questions Crago's way. He was more than happy to fill in the blanks, and on a few occasions, colour the blanks with green and pink highlighter.

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Upon hearing the news that Oz animation studio Animal Logic had opened a gaming studio, Animal Logic Interactive, in Los Angeles, I couldn't help but be sad. To me it seemed the government's lack of support for developers had finally manifested itself in a way we could all appreciate.

Jason Hill of Screenplay managed to get in contact with AL's CEO Zareh Nalbandian to find out exactly what motivated the company to go with LA over Melbourne or Brisbane:

"We felt that there was a rich pool of talent ... that we have more options in Los Angeles at this point of time than we have elsewhere."

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I was just browsing the various Australian game developer websites - as you do - when I spotted this gem in the recruitment section of Tantalus' website:

We are expanding into an exciting new phase of growth and development, aggressively recruiting for a brand new title. The title is an entirely unique Tantalus-originated IP for Next Generation Platforms, funded by a top tier publisher for worldwide release at Christmas 2008.

I got in contact with CEO Tom Crago, who was able to confirm the statement as accurate. The only addition was that the title has slipped to 2009 (the site's being amended as we speak). Otherwise, he wasn't able to say any more, at least for now.

Tantalus recently made the Develop 100 list for 2007 - the only wholly-Australian company to do so - so I can see why a big publisher would be more than happy to trust the company with an important project.

Tantalus [Official site]

Tax cuts for Australian game developers. It's not a big ask, and certainly a justified one; the industry rakes in around $136 million a year, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. We know the last federal government had little interest in the idea, and that Labor senator Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, promised a committee on the matter if his party was elected. It was.

It seems the Game Developers Association of Australia and the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia want to make sure our current government continues to investigate the issue and as such, the two organisations have joined forces.

Said Tom Crago, Tantalus CEO and GDAA president:

"Australian game developers cannot be expected to be internationally competitive when global market conditions are 'not level'. We owe it to the companies themselves to offer these incentives and we also need to make an investment into Australia's 'smart economy'."

Full release after the jump.

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Melbourne-based developer Tantalus has two positions to fill, one for executive producer and the other for a business development manager. CEO Tom Crago thought Kotaku Australia would be a great place to publicise the roles. Not only did I agree with him, I jumped at the opportunity to help.

Tom says you shouldn't feel intimidated or discouraged from applying just because you have no experience in the industry. There are plenty of jobs that equip you with the skills necessary to make it in games development. Says Crago:

I think people in film and television could look at the video game industry as a potential source of employment, along with anyone presently working in more traditional software development. Skilled project managers are always in demand, and of course there is a serious shortage of C++ programmers.

Want some specifics about the roles and a bit of background on Tantalus? Read on!

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Over at InvestorTV there's an extremely eye-opening talk with some of Australia's most prominent game developers. Included in the all-local mix are Tony Hilliam, CEO of Auran; Tom Crago, CEO of Tantalus and Krome Studios' CEO Robert Walsh. While Hilliam gets stuck explaining the downfall of Auran, Tom and Robert go over the positives of games development in Oz.

The first part of the interview sees Hilliam deconstruct the failure of Fury, citing poor sales in the US and Europe and the sheer size of World of Warcraft as contributing factors:

"Ultimately, sales of Fury were worse than our low case projections. We did OK in Australia, we were top 10 in Australia, but Europe was a complete write-off. In the US – again the Australian sales have nearly outstripped the US market altogether. When Australia is almost your biggest market, you have a problem."

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An article over at the Courier Mail (no, not that one) has an update on the current state of Brisbane-based studio Auran. Both Tantalus CEO Tom Crago and Auran co-founder Graham Edelsten share words with the newspaper.

It was only a few months ago that Auran Developments, which managed the company, went into administration, resulting in a downsizing of Auran's healthy 85 employees to a skeletal 15.

According to the article, Auran hasn't thrown it's multi-million dollar MMO Fury to the sharks just yet (as evidenced by the release of the Age of the Chosen expansion late last year), and is looking to sell the underlying tech it used to create the game.

Graham Edelsten also had this to say about the Oz industry:

Mr Edelsten says Auran will stick to less ambitious projects, saying until the investment dollars match those of their overseas counterparts it is too risky to take on the giants.

Game still on for Auran [Courier Mail, via Sumea]

Australian game developers want tax breaks. Nothing crazy, just an arrangement similar to what the film and television industry currently enjoys. And definitely not its sloppy seconds.

After the Government told the Game Developers' Association of Australia to talk to the hand, Labor responded with promises of a committee to discuss the issue, if it was elected.

Now, GDAA CEO Tom Crago and Australian Greens' Senator Christine Milne are urging gamers to give the Greens their vote in the upcoming election. In doing so, Milne will do her bit to make the rebate happen. She won't even screw around with a committee, apparently.

For the curious, you can read the Greens' official policy on the matter at GreensBlog, or hit the post from whence it came.

Good news? Look what tax breaks did for Montreal. Just don't mention the mammoth carbon footprint made by your 360, PS3, Wii and PC.

Greens get game [Screen Play, thanks Stephen!]