Indie game funding for a released game: what 46 programmes allow

We read the rules of 46 indie game grants and funds, and 11 will pay for work on a game that is already on sale. Fourteen rule it out in writing, 17 never say, and four more open the door only to games they funded before or that launched in the last three months.

If your game is out and you are looking for money to port it, translate it or keep building it, this is where the doors are, and how to tell early that one is shut.

Most funding is written for a game nobody has played yet

Funding guides list the same names: Epic MegaGrants, the UK Games Fund, the Canada Media Fund, Creative Europe. Few mention that many of these programmes stop at launch.

We took the programmes those guides name, added the public funds we could find region by region, and read each one’s own rules on October 8, 2026.

1. Will fund work on a released game11
2. Only if they funded it before, or within 3 months of launch4
3. Rule it out in writing14
4. Say nothing either way17

46 grant, investment and loan programmes for games (35 public, 11 private), each classified from its own guidelines, FAQ or application form. Tax rebates are counted separately below. Read October 8, 2026.

Source: Strike Two reading of each programme's rules

The refusals are plain. Outersloth, the fund run by the makers of Among Us, lists what it wants as “Games that are not yet released (i.e. if the game is in Early Access, it will not be considered)”. The Canada Media Fund’s main stream bars a project that has already been made publicly available.

Ontario Creates names the exact work a developer with a live game wants to do. Its ineligible list includes “enhancements, improvements, augmentations, ports and redesigns of existing products already released to the market”.

The 17 silent programmes are not a yes. Epic MegaGrants asks for a working prototype and says nothing about games that have shipped. Most of these forms ask when the game will launch.

Eleven programmes will fund a game that is already out

Five are in Australia, two in Germany, one each in Flanders and Switzerland, and two are Google Play funds that require a published game.

Programme	Who can apply	What it pays for on a released game	Size
VicScreen, Victorian Production Fund Games	Victoria, Australia	Localisation, porting, DLC, marketing	Up to A$300,000 an application; you fund half
Screenwest, Digital Games Production Fund	Western Australia	DLC, localisation, porting	Up to A$25,000
South Australian Film Corporation, Digital Games Fund	South Australia	Ports, localisation, content updates, marketing	Up to A$50,000
Screen Australia, Games Production Fund	Australia	A port to a new platform	Up to A$100,000
Screen Queensland, Games Grants	Queensland	Post-release content, ports	Up to A$200,000, matched
German federal games funding	Germany	Ports and large expansions	25 to 50% of a project of €300,000 or more
Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg	Berlin, Brandenburg	DLC	Repayable loan
VAF Gamefonds	Flanders, Brussels	Porting, localisation, DLC, remaster, promotion	Promotion up to €75,000
Pro Helvetia, post-production	Switzerland	Marketing, ports	Up to CHF 20,000
Google Play Indie Games Fund, Latin America	Latin America	Growing the game on Google Play, Android port	US$150,000 to $200,000
Google Play Indie Games Fund, Africa	Sub-Saharan Africa	Growing the game on Google Play, Android port	US$50,000 to $200,000

VicScreen is the clearest. Its guidelines say the programme “accepts applications to support games at pre-production, production and post-release”, and a post-release application needs “An existing publicly released project” plus a plan for work that builds on it.

Some rest on thinner wording. Screen Queensland’s yes comes from its application form, which lists “Post Release” as a stage and “Porting Project” as a target. Medienboard’s is one sentence on its web page. Screen Australia’s is an FAQ answer about ports.

South Australia’s guidelines contradict themselves. The new Post-Release Stream is for “digital games that have already been released or are close to release”. The same document still lists games that “have already received a full retail release” as ineligible. Email the fund before you rely on either line.

The two Google funds reverse the usual rule. Google’s announcements say they are for developers who have already launched a game on Google Play, another mobile platform, PC or console. The application pages ask a PC-only game to put part of the money into an Android port. The latest Latin America round we found was 2025.

We found no United States grant that funds a commercial game after release.

Four more programmes fund only games they already know. The Canada Media Fund’s Iteration pilot pays up to C$350,000 for new content, ports and localisation, for “previously CMF-funded” games with C$500,000 in revenue or 20,000 units sold. Ontario Creates and Denmark’s Spilordningen have launch money for games they funded in production.

The fourth is the UK’s only route. The BFI’s Video Game Release fund pays £5,000 to £50,000 toward marketing and localisation abroad, for a game “released no earlier than three months before the date of application”.

So a funder that backed the game before launch will often keep backing it after. If you are still pre-release and eligible for one of these, apply now.

Early Access usually counts as released

Outersloth will not consider a game in Early Access. Wings will not fund “Games out in Early Access”. New Zealand’s CODE says it “will generally not fund games which have been made available for sale” before applying, and names Steam Early Access. Wallimage in Belgium defines a finished game by the date it first went on sale.

A few read it the other way. The UK Games Fund’s prototype fund will not back a fully launched project but still considers a live pre-release build. Screenwest’s post-release money needs a full release, and Early Access does not count. The BFI will fund an Early Access game moving to 1.0.

If your game is sitting in Early Access, check each fund’s wording. Most development funds will treat you as released, and some post-release funds will treat you as unreleased.

What gets funded is a new piece of work

Almost every public fund shares two rules: the work must not have started when you apply, and money already spent does not count. Germany’s federal guidelines, Wallimage, Ontario Creates and South Australia all say so in their own words.

Funds do not pay for the game you made. They pay for a defined project on top of it. Germany’s federal fund says production can include “the porting of existing games to new platforms” and large expansions of published games. Its FAQ adds that the work must be clearly distinct from the existing game.

Two practical consequences:

• Apply before you start. If you begin the Switch port and then look for a grant, the port is no longer fundable in most places.
• Scope it as a project. A port, a localisation pass or an expansion with its own budget and end date is fundable. General upkeep is not. South Australia excludes “routine maintenance, minor patches, or general operating costs”.

Tax rebates are more open, and have a spending floor

We kept tax incentives out of the 46 because they refund spending and do not pick projects. Several name released games directly:

• Australia’s Digital Games Tax Offset refunds 30% and covers porting and ongoing development of released games. It needs at least A$500,000 of qualifying spending.
• New Zealand’s Game Development Sector Rebate refunds 20% and names post-launch updates, DLC and porting. The floor is NZ$250,000 a year.
• New South Wales and South Australia rebate 10% on a major update of an existing game, from A$350,000 and A$250,000.
• The UK’s Video Games Expenditure Credit goes the other way. HMRC’s manual says core expenditure does not include “debugging or post-release maintenance”.

For a small team, the floor is the barrier.

When chasing a grant is the wrong move

You live somewhere with no door. For a developer in the US, or most of Europe and Canada, the count of programmes that fund a released game is zero or close to it.

You need the money soon. South Australia’s fund opens once a year. Screen Australia’s next deadline is February 25, 2027. Decisions take months, and you cannot start the work while you wait.

You cannot match it. VicScreen asks you to cover half the budget. Queensland’s grants are matched. Germany’s federal fund pays 25 to 50% of a project that costs at least €300,000.

The game needs a different kind of help. A grant pays for a task. It does not bring someone to run the store page, the sales calendar or the port. That is a publisher’s job, and it is a different conversation.

What to do next

1. Find your region in the table and read the current guidelines yourself. Rules change every round.
2. Email the fund one question: can a game that is already on sale apply for this work? A silent programme may say yes.
3. Define the work as a project with a future start date, a budget and an end. Do not begin it.
4. If nothing fits, the money for a released game comes from its own sales, a platform deal or a partner. We wrote about finding a publisher for a released game and about what a fair revenue share looks like when the game already sells.

We hoped to find more open doors than we did. Being told your finished game is too finished for help is frustrating. It is better to know before you spend a month on an application.

How we counted

• Programmes. 46 funding streams that pay toward a specific game: 35 public and 11 private. Each stream with its own rules counts once, so the Canada Media Fund is five and the UK Games Fund is two.
• Sources. Each programme’s own guidelines, terms, FAQ or application form, read October 8, 2026. None was classified from a third-party summary.
• Will fund a released game (11). The rules name a released game, or work only a released game can have, as fundable.
• Conditional (4). Only for games the funder already backed, or only within three months of release.
• Rules it out (14). The rules say a game already released, on sale, publicly available or past an early stage is ineligible. Wings is counted here on its Early Access line.
• Silent (17). No statement. A rule that work must not have started was not counted as an exclusion by itself.
• Left out. Tax rebates, programmes that fund a company and not a game, publishers, and programmes with no sign of a current round.
• Limits. This is not every fund. We did not read programmes in Asia, most Canadian provinces, or several European countries. Silent does not mean no. Geography, company age and cultural tests decide as much as release status, so a yes here is a reason to read the guidelines, not proof you qualify.