As we reach the end of the first half of 2021, I've been reading some fantastic news from various studios who are developing lane-pushing games.

I suspect that much of this news doesn't circulate nearly as widely as it should, so with this post I'd like to place a spotlight on some of the amazing work that has been going on in the genre, and how generously players and companies have been investing in smaller studios.

I have seven titles listed here in roughly chronological order — but I'm sure I'm missing a few so please get in touch if you have something to add!

Let's begin...

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The Immortal Mystics

Spanish team Mindiff has a project centred on the development of a game engine for RTS and MOBA style games. It's called the "Plague" engine, and The Immortal Mystics is the first game serving as a pilot for the engine.

Mindiff received just over $1M in early 2019 through mid 2020 towards development of their engine as part of the European Regional Development Fund: a funding source which aims to reduce socio-economic gaps between various regions within the EU.

The team is actively sharing gameplay footage on their twitter, which seems to be the best place to follow along for now.

Dreambound

In June 2020, Studio Wayfinder ran a Kickstarter as part of their plan to revive the much-beloved IP and community for Dawngate.

In a massive show of support from their community, they raised over $100k in pledges. Some novel backer awards included being able to give a name to one of the minions, which would have a small chance to be seen marching down the lane during a match.

Negotiations with EA to acquire the IP did not result in an IP transfer, but the team doubled down to rekindle the spirit of Dawngate with original IP under the name Dreambound — with 97% of backers supporting this decision.

The good work continues, and you can discover more about the project and enjoy its artwork over at their website.

Fault

In December 2019, Strange Matter Studios opened pre-orders for their game Fault, followed by its early access release on Steam in July 2020. As the first Paragon successor project to officially launch, the game drew plenty of player attention.

Estimates with the Steam Revenue Calculator suggest the opening week brought around $300k net revenue from 40k customers — which is inaccurate for many reasons (niche genre, pre-orders, etc.) but gives a sense of the scale of their success as a bootstrapped studio!

The team have maintained a regular update schedule since and are working towards a new map. You can check out their latest progress on their website.

Overprime

In January 2021, Team SoulEVE announced their acquisition by Netmarble! As both entities are based in South Korea, this seems like an excellent match.

Netmarble themselves have a long history with multiplayer games, and are well-positioned to put substantial funding behind making Overprime a success.

For more information about the game as it evolves, visit their website and perhaps join their discord server for latest updates.

Predecessor

The biggest announcement so far this decade has centered on Omeda Studios, who in March announced their receipt of an Epic MegaGrant. Two days later, they followed by sharing that the studio had raised $2.2M in venture capital from seasoned VC funds!

In June, Omeda shared that Steve Superville has joined the studio as an advisor. Steve was formerly Game Director at Epic Games working on Paragon, bringing some very relevant experience for this project.

You can stay tuned for more exciting news at their website.

Circuits and Shields

As recently as this month, Koza Games announced that they've earned an Epic MegaGrant! Based on Epic's figures, these grants typically issue around $60k, which is a great asset to the team on their journey to VC investment.

This follows an official tournament organised the weekend prior, showcasing the 'Circuitball' game mode which is playable right now if you join their discord server.

You can discover more about the game and where it's headed next over on their website.

Ethereal: Clash of Souls

I'll admit I really didn't anticipate this one!

Undying Games, the studio behind upcoming game Ethereal: Clash of Souls, did an early fundraise this month with a sale of NFTs — "non-fungible tokens".

These are a type of digital asset based on blockchain which has a consensus-based ownership: so if you own it, you really do own it and can transfer or sell it later.

The team worked with their artists to create a collection of trading cards, and sold packs with varying degrees of rarity that can be combined to upgrade them.

The result was 800k Wax coins equivalent to over $100k — without even selling access to the game! That's one heck of a show of community enthusiasm!

The game is likely to see a Kickstarter launch soon, so make sure to follow at their website for more.

Closing Thoughts

What fascinates me is that all seven of these start-ups gathered funding from different sources! It really speaks to the passion driving all of the teams, and the diversity of approaches that can work.

Perhaps under-represented here is national funding and grants, which are commonly available in some European countries. Similarly, local programmes and accelerators might be valuable, though not making it to the various teams' blogs.

Of course, no small amount of time and personal funds goes into getting to the stage where these kind of announcements can happen. For teams which are still getting started, this list can hopefully serve as a point of reference to point you in the right direction for your own project.

To all of the teams, best of luck forward and we hope to see even bigger numbers from you soon!