Stormcloud Games, the award-winning games studio based in Dundee, behind titles including the financial-education-em-up, Island Saver, has secured a ‘significant financial investment’ from Chroma Ventures, the investment arm of 4J Studios.
The investment will enable Stormcloud to explore new game ideas and create new intellectual property.
Stormcloud Games was founded in 2012 by industry veteran Frank Arnot, who has built a team of around a dozen experienced developers. Arnot now anticipates that the team will need to grow by around 50% over the next year, as development progresses.
Stormcloud has built a great reputation for its work on family-friendly titles, including BAFTA nominations for The Gruffalo and Room on the Broom, and its original and award-winning children’s origami-em-up series Paper Zoo, Paper Ocean, and Paper Pets.
Last year, in partnership with NatWest Group, Stormcloud launched the rather awesome Island Saver, a financial education game for children, which earned a nomination for ‘Best Educational or Serious Game’ in the 2020 TIGA Game Awards. Island Saver has now been downloaded more than 2.7 million times (and streamed live over on the SGN YouTube channel).
Paddy Burns, the Principal of Chroma Ventures, said:
“We’ve known Frank and the Stormcloud team for many years now and have followed their recent successes closely. Stormcloud has excelled in producing family-friendly games that everyone loves to play. When Frank shared their latest new games ideas with us, we decided that we wanted to help enable him and his team develop them.
“What sets Stormcloud apart is the depth of experience in the team, many of whom have been making games for nearly 30 years. They know instinctively what works and what doesn’t, and they make original content in a style that is distinctly their own. We’re delighted to add Stormcloud to the Chroma Ventures portfolio.”
Frank Arnot, founder of Stormcloud Games, told the Scottish Games Network:
“Given the challenges we’ve faced in the past year with the pandemic, it feels particularly good to be part of a wider community of games developers working in similar genres. To be doing so with Chris and Paddy’s support – both financially and practically – is a real bonus.
“Having known each other for years, I think there’s a natural affinity and understanding of what we each bring to the working relationship. I trust and value their opinions – which is why we started talking about this in the first place – and they trust in our team’s ability to do the work and to do it in the right way.”
Stormcloud Games joins a Chroma Ventures portfolio which includes fellow Dundee-based indie games studio Puny Astronaut, augmented reality (AR) technology company Blippar, ready meal provider Parsley Box, and commercial insurance distribution and data platform Broker Insights.
You can find Stormcloud games online, on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
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