Five Cyprus-based game development studios, who have a combined ten games in the works, announced today that they have formed a developer-led holding to support each other’s projects. The holding, called Nova Assembly, is co-owned by the studios while allowing them to retain creative freedom. The five studios in the Assembly are Unfrozen, Sad Cat Studios, VEA Games, Game Garden and Weappy.
According to the studios, the Assembly offers each studio access to the others’ expertise and resources, meaning all five studios will be able to support each other with less need to outsource. Among the games in development for Nova Assembly’s members are Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era, Replaced and The Eternal Life of Goldman.
Nova Assembly put out an open letter stating the intentions behind its formation, which go beyond five studios in the same location wanting to assist each other. In the letter, they note that its purpose is to be a model for creativity-first practices and show how indie studios can help each other thrive. They also intend to build their own publishing arm to market and release their games.
Denis Federov, founder of Unfrozen and CEO of Nova Assembly, told GamesBeat: “Our studios have crossed paths repeatedly at industry events, showcases, and within shared professional circles, which happens quite naturally when you’re all based in the same place, like Cyprus. We’ve supported one another with advice on development and marketing, and followed each other’s projects closely, especially as many of us are working on highly anticipated titles. And over time, it became clear that we approach challenges with a shared mindset.”
He added, “At a certain point, formalizing that connection simply made sense. We chose to build a structure that allows us to collaborate more consistently and more meaningfully. Nova Assembly is, in essence, an extension of an existing relationship, and a belief that independent studios can achieve more together than they can alone.”
Ilya Yanovich, co-founder of Weappy and Nova Assembly’s creative director, added in a statement, “In a world where we increasingly give over control to algorithms, we’re uniting with like-minded people to reinforce the human element: to exchange human ideas, offer each other human support, and make human decisions together.”