It looks like games, particularly kid-oriented ones, were top of mind for the Canada Media Fund as it announced the approval of 27 projects for production funding, totaling US$12.9 million, in the first round of its experimental stream.

Almost half (12) of the projects were games, followed by five websites, three mobile apps, three interactive web series and four software apps.

The games themselves span a diverse range of subjects, from educational (Bot Colony from Montreal’s 2904802 Canada, in which users will learn or improve English skills) to transmedia (PROJECTB6 from B.C.’s Interdimensional Games, is a 3-D interactive TV series) and an alternate reality game from Kids’ CBC.

Included in the apps is 13-part live-action, tween-targeted series called Big Break delivered via mobile app from Smokebomb Entertainment, a division of Toronto, Canada-based Shaftesbury Films, which features entertainment and themes that allow tweens to create their own content and share it with a community.

Additionally, another 11 projects – ranging from websites, games and apps – were approved for development funding totaling $1.6 million. Seven projects falling in the same categories as mentioned got the greenlight for marketing funding to the tune of $1.6 million.

The number of applicants to this first round ‘vastly exceeded’ the fund available, according to the CMF, so it has extended its deadline for the second round to November 12.

For a full list of recipients, <ahref=’http://www.cmf-fmc.ca/news-actualites.html?page_mode=connect‘> click here.

From Playback Online