1939 Games, an indie game studio in Iceland, announced it has raised $3.6 million to deliver it’s cross-platform digital collectible card title Kards to gamers on PC and mobile in 2019. Kards is set in World War II.
The funding comes from a collection of private and public sources including government grants and international investors Tencent, Sisu Game Ventures, and Crowberry Capital.
Ívar Kristjánsson, the former CEO of CCP Games, is CEO of 1939 Games. At CCP, he launched blockbuster MMO EVE Online.
1939 Games was formed in 2015 by a group of senior ex-CCP executives with a passion for bringing authentic, premium WWII experiences to gamers.
1939 Games’ creative director and lead game designer is Guðmundur Kristjánsson, who was a project lead at CCP for almost 13 years where he worked on various aspects of EVE Online’s development.
And 1939 Games senior game designer Hrafnkell Smári Óskarsson was also director of game design at CCP for EVE Online.
“This funding enables the team at 1939 Games to continue to deliver our vision of creating a high-quality, historically accurate WWII-themed digital collectible card game,” said Kristjánsson, in a statement. “Kards fuses our two passions of WWII and collectible card games, and we continually strive to deliver a historically accurate experience that will delight CCG fans as well as WWII aficionados.”
Kards is a free-to-play multi-platform digital CCG for PC/Mac and mobile devices, built around the classic dynamics of booster packs and deck building. The title brings the concept of a frontline which introduces a simple range and movement system that fits the warfare theme.
Players can deploy a range of new gameplay tactics from their decks. At launch, players will be able to construct bespoke decks based on the key WWII factions — Britain, U.S., Japan, Germany, and the Soviet Union. Combat units include infantry, armored vehicles, aircraft, naval units, and special forces.
1939 Games has nine employees.