- The funding spherical was led by Earlybird Digital East Fund with participation from Laton Ventures
- The studio is utilising AI tech to assist develop its titles
New Turkey-based cell video games studio Grand Video games has raised $3 million in a pre-seed funding spherical.
The funding was led by Earlybird Digital East Fund with participation from Laton Ventures. The financing coincided with the smooth launch of the developer’s first title, Magic Kind, a puzzle sport designed round matching colors.
Lots to play
Grand Video games founders Mustafa Fırtına, Mehmet Çalım, and Bekir Batuhan Çelebi all beforehand labored at Good Job Video games, the place Fırtına and Çalım led growth on Zen Match.
Now reunited beneath Grand Video games, the studio goals to make use of this funding spherical to assist develop the workforce and launch extra titles. The variety of full-time staff has already risen from 4 to 13 for the reason that studio was based simply 4 months in the past.
In addition to soft-launching Magic Kind, the studio is about to observe that title up with Automotive Match later this month. The corporate’s “flagship title”, in the meantime, is predicted to launch in early 2025 with a give attention to social interplay.
The workforce credited the quick launch cycle of its first two video games to its use of AI. Each Grand Video games title at the moment in growth has used the tech, whether or not utilising Midjourney for idea artwork or harnessing AI at a codebase degree. In reality, as much as 30% of every sport’s codebase has been made with AI.
A “billion-dollar enterprise”?
“We noticed how fragmented cell sport growth had grow to be and took the chance to construct a radically totally different firm to what we had been seeing available in the market,” stated Çelebi.
“The vast majority of cell video games created now are sometimes poorly executed copies of profitable titles, and we see a chance to construct a billion-dollar enterprise made potential by adopting the most recent AI expertise which helps us construct and iterate video games quicker.
“Swift execution mixed with innovation shall be what separates us from different corporations.”
Earlybird Digital East Fund’s Oguzhan Ozer commented: “It’s been an awesome pleasure to intently witness the stellar growth of Turkey’s gaming ecosystem for greater than a decade, to grow to be a number one world hub, particularly after Peak’s exit.
“We’re fairly selective traders, and realizing the challenges of the market with the insider view, have approached it cautiously. What set Grand Video games aside and satisfied us was the workforce high quality and their imaginative and prescient, and we’re very excited to help them of their journey.”
Earlybird Digital East Fund invested in Peak Video games nicely over a decade in the past – again in 2011 – throughout an $11.5 million spherical. That studio, which was acquired by Zynga in a $1.8 billion deal, has launched main hits like Toon Blast, which just lately surpassed $2.5 billion in earnings by means of a newfound income surge.