The next game from the Ex-Skullgirls developers is just a project supported by this new gaming fund

In her years working with small developers through the cooperatively owned game brand Glitch, CEO Evva Karr noticed a serious problem.

While Karr had come across many small and diverse game development teams with talented creators and brilliant ideas who they believed could be incredibly successful, those teams were struggling. Some did not have the seed funding necessary to get their projects off the ground, while others simply lacked the know-how to even publish a game. Doing it, sure, but what about releasing it to publishers, marketing it, releasing it on consoles, or running a studio as a business? It turns out that none of that information is easily accessible to many emerging developers.

What’s more, Karr felt that video game audiences were woefully underserved. Diverse People – Women, people of color, LGBTQ + people – all play games, but they often don’t have the same opportunities to create games that have been created by the historically white and male industry for decades. Fortunately, through Glitch, Karr was in a position to do something.

Karr Moonrise Fund started, an early-stage gaming investment fund focused on supporting what they describe as “new types of gaming that haven’t been seen before.” Moonrise is supporting a steady stream of promising studies in their early stages of development on new projects, while also offering advice and mentoring as they progress. In the meantime, you are building a network of successful developers who can share knowledge with each other and gradually develop the support that you can offer to your developers over time.

While they know it sounds like a dream, Karr tells IGN that Moonrise is his attempt to show the entire gaming industry that the ways that games are made and how the people who make them are treated can be a lot. top.

Killer Auto by Virtuoso Neomedia

“I think a bigger, better, more inclusive and completely revitalized games industry is possible,” says Karr. “I think it’s sustainable, possibly co-creative, and also shaped by new players and new experiences.”

To that end, Moonrise has announced the first three studies it will support and offered some insight into its upcoming projects. The first is Future Club, a cooperative game studio formed by the developers of Skull Girls and Indivisible. They’re working on a secret project right now, although CEO Francesca Esquenazi was able to scoff a bit: an original IP that focuses on narrative. Future Club is doing so with the intention of showcasing its prowess in critically acclaimed character design and animation, as well as central stories from a women’s perspective.

Next up is Virtuoso Neomedia, which currently has three projects in the works, all in different genres. There’s Raddminton, a fighting game and a combination of racket sports. Then there is Killer Auto, a futuristic racer. And finally, Zodiac XX is an underwater dogfight narrative game. Virtuoso places a particular emphasis on music in its games and is working with artists like 2Mello and DV-i on their upcoming projects.

Skullgirls, by Future Club, Hidden Variable and Autumn Games

Finally, Moonrise backs Perfect Garbage, the studio behind Love Shore that is also working on an unannounced mix of genres that mixes classic game loops with new storytelling ideas and focuses the perspectives of people of color and LGBTQ + people. Oh, and they love horror.

One thing the three studios have in common is that while they were all up and running prior to Moonrise’s support, their ambitions were much lower prior to its help. Son M., Project Manager at Perfect Garbage, says that ultimately their goal is to be self-reliant. “We have lived that life on Kickstarter and decided that we are already tired.”

Rather than wait until they shipped two or three more games to attract funding, Perfect Garbage was able to conceptualize their next game as the game they really wanted to make. Narrative designer Emmett Nahil adds that Moonrise’s direction, advice, and availability were also a game changer, calling it “honest mentoring.”

Virtuoso director Ethan Redd notes that Moonrise also supported his studio’s “furious independence”, saying the studio wants to do “weird things” with games and how it releases them. And then there’s Future Club, which as a worker cooperative, where all employees have an equal voice in decision-making and profits, has a structure that could make working with traditional gaming finance models challenging. But thanks to Moonrise, they were able to make a key new hire and buy time and space to work on something new, rather than putting aside their main project to do Skullgirls contract work to keep the lights on.

Love Shore by Perfect Garbage

“There are games we’ve wanted to make for a long time,” says Future Club Creative Director Mariel Kinuko Cartwright. “And it is difficult to find people who are on board and who, in the same way, have a completely open mind to explore those possibilities. Moonrise … is saying, we believe in you, we want this to happen, we can help you get there because the things you want to do must exist. “

Then there’s the practical help, with Moonrise offering access to documents as simple as budget templates. Redd points out that much of the decision-making and data is kept behind closed doors in the games industry, so developers his size don’t often work with real numbers when doing things like setting goals and making sales plans. and marketing. Nahil adds that this is especially true for underserved developers.

“As a self-owned and operated independent studio, we are always learning on the job. That’s great, but it helps if someone gives you a textbook. You learn by doing, but you also learn to have access to the things that people have. [already] learned so that you are not operating in a vacuum “.

Moonrise’s goal is to support and elevate “new ways of gaming,” and the leadership of its first three studios is eager to contribute to this vision. As Redd points out, Moonrise’s open mind about what games can be will not only benefit its members; Anyone who likes games ultimately benefits from more new and interesting ideas.

“The fact that the games [traditionally] they are being done by people with similar backgrounds, similar education, all of that is homogenized, “he says.” When you bring in new people with fresh ideas, you’ll get new games … you’ll see people you haven’t seen before doing things you probably haven’t seen before. “

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @Patovalentino.