Rocky Road has received a $2.5 million investment for the company’s first mobile casual MMO (multiplayer) game. The Iceland-based company was founded in 2022 by Thor Fridriksson, Vala Halldorsdottir, and Sveinn Davidsson and has just completed its seed investment round.
Rocky Road will use the $2.5 million raised from its funding round to build a multiplayer and social, mobile game. Co-founder Thor Fridriksson will serve as CEO of the company, while Vala Halldorsdottir and Sveinn Davidsson will assume the title of Chief Design Officer.
The new developer company will primarily recruit 3D designers and software engineers for its new studio in Kyiv. Although the company has a new game plan, there is no entire team yet. The new game designed by Rocky Road will be an open world based on real map data.
Crowberry Capital and Sisu Game Ventures led the investment round. Thanks to this investment, Rocky Road will open a studio in Ukraine as well as Iceland. Thor Fridriksson, co-founder and CEO of Rocky Road, said:
“I have always been a fan of huge game worlds where players can interact with one another, meet new people, and create long-lasting relationships. The problem with the overwhelming majority of current open-world games is that they are incredibly complicated and have a very steep learning curve which prevents the majority of gamers from getting into the game.
We are building Rocky Road on the premise that normal people are excited to play and socialize in a massive game world, and we are focused on delivering that experience in an accessible way.”
Based on Fridriksson’s statements, it is possible to say that the new MMO game design will appeal to wider audiences and will be a simple game to learn. The game will especially give importance to social experience and will be a medium where people can socialize while having fun.
Crowberry Capital partner Jenny Ruth has this to say about the veteran founders of the new company:
“Like all the best games studios, the Rocky Road founders have extraordinary pedigree in mobile games, with extensive experience in scaling up gaming platforms with over 100 million users. We love to back diverse teams with wide backgrounds that have deep industry experience. The Rocky Road team fits that profile perfectly.”
It had recently received a similar investment to develop social-first games at another game studio, SOCIAL FIRST. Recently, especially with the metaverse, social game projects have increased frequently. It is good news that game studios prioritize social issues these days when the future of the game industry is being reshaped.
