Last week saw two funded projects being launched into the market, with Wabisabi from Round 5 and Purple Yonder from Round 6 both releasing their games.
Wabisabi Play, based in Brighton, recently launched the hand-drawn point-and-click puzzler Growbot on Steam in partnership with Application Systems Heidelberg.
In the game, you play as a new arrival on a biomechanical space station, but the moment you arrive you find the place under siege from a mysterious enemy. The other space robots are disabled so you start puttering around, collecting items, solving puzzles, and try to untangle the threat before the space station is destroyed.
Lisa Evans from Wabisabi Play said:
The UK Games Fund has had a huge impact on our company. We were able to secure a publishing deal as a result of the prototype we developed during our round. UKGF has helped connect us to industry peers and grow our knowledge of both game and company development. We are really grateful for their support.
Round 6 funded company Purple Yonder last week announced the release of Little Cities, a cozy VR city creation game. It is the first game to be published by nDreams via their third-party publishing arm.
In Little Cities, players create beautiful cities from the ground up and watch them flourish and come to life. Starting with a simple road, carefully place your residential, commercial or industrial zones and then watch the citizens move in! But keeping them happy is the only way to help your cities grow: access to power, water and network connectivity are all a must, as are fire and police services, schools and hospitals.
Speaking of the support from the UK Games Fund, Kelly Howard from Purple Yonder said:
“We were thrilled when our VR city creator was selected for the UKGF grant. The Purple Yonder team is extremely thankful for their expertise, industry knowledge and support during our company’s early phase development.”
Kirsty Gibson, Head of Community at UK Games Fund, said:
“Our portfolio of funded companies continues to grow and flourish; we’ve had reports of studios more than doubling in size as well as the brilliant examples of successful developers launching their funded projects in partnership with publishers. To have both Wabisabi Play and Purple Yonder announce project releases in the same week is fantastic for our community; their dedication, passion and hard work now pays off as the accolades pour in.”
Follow Purple Yonder and Wabisabi over on Twitter for updates about the projects.