SR&ED for video games & interactive media
Canada is one of the biggest places in the world to make games, and a lot of studios leave SR&ED on the table. Some assume the whole project counts; others assume none of it does. The truth usually sits in between.
The credit follows the hard technical problems, not the game itself.
3-day trial · no card · AI included, no setup
Where the eligible work usually is
- Getting a scene to render inside a frame budget the known techniques couldn't hit on your target hardware.
- Netcode and multiplayer sync where lag, prediction or scale had no off-the-shelf answer for your game.
- Physics, simulation or procedural systems where the behaviour genuinely couldn't be predicted in advance.
- Building engine or pipeline technology to do something the tools you had simply couldn't.
What usually doesn't qualify
Art, animation, audio, writing, level design and standard gameplay scripting are the craft of making a game, but they aren't SR&ED. Using an engine's documented features the ordinary way, and a routine port to another platform, don't clear the bar either. The test is whether a technical outcome was genuinely uncertain, not whether the game was ambitious or new.
The evidence you already have
Studios keep strong records without trying: version-control history in Git or Perforce, profiling and build data, technical design docs, milestone and code reviews, and crash and performance telemetry. SREDlog connects GitHub (read-only) and reads that trail to separate the experimental engineering from the content work and draft the T661 narrative around it.
Frequently asked questions
Not the whole thing. The eligible part is the specific engineering where a technical outcome was uncertain — rendering, netcode, simulation, engine work — not the art, design or content around it.
No. Using an engine is fine. Using its documented features the ordinary way is routine; extending the engine, or solving a problem it couldn't handle out of the box, can be eligible.
Commit history, build data and milestone records can reconstruct a defensible time picture. SREDlog builds one and flags where it's thin. See time tracking.
Find the SR&ED in your engine work
Start a free trial, connect your repo, and see the experimental engineering surface from your own history.
3-day free trial · No credit card required
This guide is general information, not tax advice. SR&ED rules, rates and limits change, so confirm the current figures with the CRA or your advisor before you file.