Griffin Gaming Partners Launches $100 Million Fund for Indie Titles With Hollywood Potential (Exclusive)

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Griffin Gaming Partners, a Santa Monica-based venture fund focused on gaming with $1.5 billion under management, is launching a new fund focused on promising indie games with potential beyond gaming.

The Special Opportunities Fund, worth $100 million, “aims to provide a new model for venture capital investment in gaming, focusing on project-based financing with simple terms, in which funding is provided in exchange for a share of a game’s revenue,” the company stated.

Going beyond commonly used equity-based investments, the goal of the fund is to offer “a better way of getting capital into the hands of indie studios, many of which are not equipped for or interested in traditional equity-based investment.”

Amid the success of indie developers in creating breakout hits with modest budgets, Griffin diagnosed “a need for and the opportunity in fair funding solutions for small studios.”

Tim Bender, CEO of Hooded Horse, serves as managing director of the fund, which Griffin said has already invested in 15 titles, including nine announced projects. The projects represent a mix of titles, from self-published games to those signed with a publisher, including several published by Hooded Horse.

The fund also features such advisors as film and television producer Dylan Clark (The Batman, The Penguin, Miami Vice), along with such brand stewards as Russell Binder (Five Nights at Freddy’s, Angry Birds, The Walking Dead, Dead by Daylight).

“Indie games represent one of the fastest-growing segments of the interactive entertainment market today,” says Griffin managing director and co-founder Nick Tuosto. “We know developers want a flexible, transparent financing solution, and we’re excited to support their ambitions through the dedicated Special Opportunities Fund. Griffin has been honing its strategy since its formation, and we are proud to bring this new initiative to market with an investment team we believe is uniquely positioned to help exceptional developers realize their full potential.”

The company also sees room for these games to move into other forms of storytelling. “We’re very excited for the transmedia potential of this fund,” said Griffin managing director and co-founder Peter Levin. “The very essence of these games and the contemplative nature of their development lead to sticky player communities and loyal followings.” And the industry talent supporting the fund “shows we’re serious about unlocking opportunities for these titles outside of gaming,” he highlighted.

The six unannounced games that the fund has invested in are a sci-fi grand strategy game “based on a popular book and TV franchise,” a Gladiator management simulation, “a God game with physics mechanics,” a dinosaur multiplayer role-playing game (RPG), a sci-fi space action role-playing game (ARPG), and a “fantasy ARPG with base-building.”

The nine announced games that Griffin Gaming’s Special Opportunities Fund has invested in are:

Menace The sci-fi turn-based tactical RPG was created by Overhype Studios (Battle Brothers) and has sold over 250,000 copies in less than three months.

Begone Beast The top-down co-op horror game for up to four players features a blend of exploration, combat, and character customization across an array of procedurally generated maps.

Expedition: Into Darkness A dungeon crawler and extraction game in a dark fantasy setting with co-op gameplay.

Vaunted The sci-fi turn-based RPG features single-player and co-op game modes.

Gilded Destiny: This hex-based grand strategy title is set in the Industrial Age.

Darkwood 2 The top-down survival horror game is the sequel to the best-selling Darkwood.

Kinstrife The high-fidelity medieval RPG is set in “an authentic open world with physics-based combat.”

Highland Keep The open-world survival craft game, set in medieval Scotland, features base building, colony management, and real-time action combat.

Hellforged This extraction/loot-driven bullet-heaven game focuses on finding “epic gear to fight off waves of demons.”

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