There’s no secret formula to getting funded by the Ontario Media Development Corporation, but there are definitely ways to increase one’s chances, Kim Gibson,OMDC Interactive Digital Media (IDM) program consultant told the audience at an event Thursday night.

Gibson was joined by digital media consultant Sasha Boersma at the International Game Developers Association Toronto meeting for a sold-out session titled Fund In The Sun, in which the duo presented tips on how to make IDM Fund applications stand out in the sea of submissions.

As Gibson noted, the OMDC funds “a hell of a lot of games” which make up a sizable chunk of funded projects, since there’s a proven revenue model for games.

But just because games receive a lot of funding doesn’t mean that all game applicants receive support. The success rate for funded applicants to the OMDC’s IDM Fund is between 20% to 30%, Gibson explains.

“If you saw the list of companies we’ve said no to, you’d be shocked,” she said. “That 20% to 30% gives a false sense of security. It’s very competitive.”

“The best applications anticipate questions from the jury,” she added. “If there’s an elephant in the room, address that elephant. The jury will poke holes in your application, so provide answers before the jury has a chance to ask the questions.”

Gibson recommends starting the application process at least two weeks in advance of the deadline, particularly for first timers – any later than that and you’ll be behind, and one developer piped up that he needed twice that time to gather all the required documentation.

She also noted that many applicants don’t put enough effort into explaining the benefit of their project to the Ontario economy, which is a big no-no: the importance of that information represents 25% of the entire application.

“People gloss over it all the time,” she noted.

Also of equal importance is a business and marketing plan to show the applicant knows its target market. New to the application this year is a competition analysis, which asks applicants to explain what other similar projects are in the market and why yours is better.

The application deadline for this round of the OMDC’s IDM Fund is Aug. 26. For more information, click here.