Halo co-creator Alex Seropian has raised $5 million for the independent studio Industrial Toys to help launch its latest mobile game Midnight Star.
The funding was done through a round of venture capital from Accel Partners. Accel is no stranger to the mobile gaming world having invested in Rovio, of Angry Birds fame, and Seropian, which came up with Halo.
"Our plan is to build something with a permanence to it," Seropian said, "It seems obvious to us that core gamers will move to mobile."
Midnight Star, a free-to-play mobile game intended for the hard-core gaming community, will launch in beta form sometime this summer. The game launch will follow that of the graphic novel Midnight Rises written by acclaimed sci fi author John Scalzi and illustrated by Mike Choi. This will set the story and stage for the game launch.
The game is set 120 years in the future. It was built from the ground up as a mobile first-person shooter that will work on either a phone or a tablet. Players have a choice of five different modes and can toggle between single and multiplayer. The player enters the game as 2nd Lt. Charles Campbell of the MSRV-17 Joplin. At the start Campbell is a lowly ex-communications specialist, but using his team and the supplied weapons he is expected to become humanity's savior.
According to several published reviews, the action starts the minute a player makes contact with an alien race. No diplomatic niceties are involved; if you see alien just shoot. Aiming and shooting are done by touching the screen where you wish to aim. There are 14 weapons to choose from that can be seen by pinching and zooming on the touchscreen. The shooter does not move through the game, as the game and targets come to him, but the player can control what angle to view.
Players will find themselves in a fully-immersive environment even when not playing. There are friend-based leaderboards and trophies that can be transferred from player to player on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. There are also rewards to be learned and the company said special events will be held.
The mobile gaming market is amazingly hot. Research firm Gartner expects it to generate $22 billion in revenue in 2015, up from $13.2 billion last year.
"This investment is about the game," said Vas Natarajan of Accel Partners in an interview. "They have a vision and focus on quality. They made their first product on a scrappy budget, but it is going to be very polished."
