Talewind has raised $800,000 in a round of funding to create games for the Roblox user-generated content platform.
It is joining a host of professional game studios that are making games for Roblox, which went public in March at a $41.9 billion value and has 42 million daily active users. Early access for Talewind’s first Roblox game, Breezy Bay, is coming soon.
The studio was started this year by Mike Allender (previously lead game designer at King’s innovation studio) and Georgina Felce (previously studio operations manager at Big Pixel Studios). The team of eight people has a diverse group of industry professionals, including Theo Docking (aka Jeddevs from the hit Roblox game “Bloopville”).
“Kindness is at the heart of everything we do,” Felce said in an email to GamesBeat. “Everyone who joins Team Talewind has committed to this ethos that we are role models to our industry, our players and the future.”
The team is part of the Roblox Accelerator program, and it is on a quest to better the metaverse with games that are fresh, fun, and full of adventure. The studio is a progressive, positive, sustainable employer focused on cultivating what it feels is an unique company culture. The funding will be used to expand the studio team and support multiple game releases within Roblox.
Breezy Bay is a cozy sandbox role-playing game (RPG) that the company likes to describe as “Animal Crossing meets RuneScape.” Players develop their islands with facilities, decorations, and toys to have the coolest island possible. The Roblox multiplayer engine means that their friends can simply swim over to hang out and trade.
“We were fortunate to be accepted onto the Roblox accelerator program in January this year,” Felce said. “It allowed us to skill-up on platform expertise and get to work alongside and learn from some of the best developers in the community. We have a lot of respect for what has already been created on the platform and hope that we can use our own perspective to create a hybrid studio of native Roblox talent and experienced industry professionals.”
Roblox says its users spend 2.5 hours per day on average in the virtual world platform, and developers are flocking to the platform.
The investors include Ian Livingstone (Hiro Capital cofounder), Chris Lee (who has led multiple studios through successful exits), Phil Mansell (CEO of Jagex), Shaun Rutland (CEO and cofounder of Hutch), Jas Purewal (Chairman of Facepunch and legal expert), Affan Butt (founding partner at Aream), Rupert Loman (founder of Gamer Network) as well as Guzmán Díaz, who was an early Roblox investor via his role at Index Ventures.
Here it is! Fresh from the Spring Accelerator, a teaser of our debut game on #Roblox, Breezy Bay, coming Summer 2021. We wish you were here already! 🏝️🍄🐟#roblox #RobloxDev #RobloxDevs #robloxgame #robloxart #robloxians #gamedev #newkidsontheblock pic.twitter.com/4tzdBevYZ8
— Talewind Games (@TalewindGames) April 30, 2021
The funding round also saw contributions from Joakim Achren’s games angel syndicate, Alvaro Alvarez del Rio, Neamul Mohsin, Niall Curran and Subina Kiani. Talewind is hiring for a community manager and a lead game designer. It’s accepting speculative applications, too.
“We’ve waited our whole careers for a paradigm shift that we could become a part of,” Felce said. “Like the explosive growth of the app stores a decade ago, professional development on Roblox is nascent. With 200 million monthly active players, world-class tools, low user acquisition costs, and one of the best multiplayer game engines for developing massively social games it was impossible to pass up this opportunity.”