The St. Petersburg studio Unfrozen has raised $ 1.7 million for further development. She is known for the tactical role-playing game Iratus: Lord of the Dead. The investor was GEM Capital.
Iratus: Lord of the Dead
There is no detailed information about the terms of the transaction.
As for the funds raised, they will be used to strengthen the team. Unfrozen plans to switch to parallel development of several projects at once.
What exactly these projects will be is unknown. Now it is only known that Alexandra Golubeva, known for her work at Ice-Pick Lodge, localization of Disco Elysium and translation of the book “Blood, Sweat and Pixels“, is working on one of them.
Studio management also notes that the Iratus franchise will continue to develop.
“Unfrozen went through a difficult stage of formation for every young studio: they formed a strong and dedicated team and released their first product. The studio has proven that it can create commercially successful games with competitive budgets. Now the team sets even more ambitious goals. It’s time to grow further, create new worlds and launch new games with bigger budgets. We are ready to help Unfrozen achieve its goals,” Kirill Gursky, the leader of GEM Capital’s gaming business, said in connection with the deal.
Iratus: Lord of the Dead is the ideological heir of The Darkest Dungeon. The game went into early access on Steam in 2019. Its full release took place 9 months later. Also a year ago, the studio released the DLC – Iratus: Wrath of the Necromancer. Sales of the game, whose publisher was Daedalic Entertainment, reached 300 thousand copies.
For GEM Capital, this is the fourth notable investment over the past year. In mid-April, the company announced a $1.4 million round in Belarusian Weappy (This Is The Police). Closer to May, it became known about GEM Capital’s participation in The Games Fund, and at the end of July, the investment company invested $ 500 thousand in the Gameram social network for gamers.
In total, GEM Capital has invested in 15 companies to date, including Mundfish (Atomic Heart), Owlcat Games (Pathfinder: Kingmaker), Deus Craft (Grand Hotel Mania) and 110 Industries.