Griffin Gaming Partners launches $100m indie dev fund, led by Hooded Horse CEO Tim Bender

Venture capital agency Griffin Gaming Partners has launched a brand new $100 million fund to assist indie video games.

The Special Opportunities Fund (SOF) makes use of a project-based financing mannequin, offering funding in alternate for a share of a recreation’s income as a substitute of fairness.

The fund is led by Hooded Horse CEO Tim Bender, who can also be a managing director at Griffin. He has served as an working associate on the agency since October 2023.

“We are in a good position to diversify our risk,” Griffin co-founder and managing director Nick Tuosto tells GamesBusiness.biz.

“We put money into lots of video games, and there shall be a spread of outcomes. For us, the video games that overperform can compensate for those who underperform, and on the finish of the day, we are going to find yourself doing effective. But for a developer, they in all probability solely have one recreation, possibly two. It’s their threat that must be protected, and it is an enormous value to them to ask that they pay us again first – significantly better to align pursuits as a supportive associate and share in success evenly.

“It comes down to this: we’ve seen what happens with set-ups like recouping investment ahead of the developer, we’ve witnessed that end game countless times. We think the time is right to shake things up with a ‘win-win’ approach to financing game development.”

Similar to Hooded Horse, Griffin’s SOF follows a “no 100% recoup” mannequin. Hooded Horse’s customary contract with builders offers 65% of income to the studio.

“Many great games could come out and not immediately recoup, but still have long-term potential with good support,” explains Tuosto. “But if recoup terms deny the developer the cash flow they need to support the game, the game dies from lack of support through no fault of the developer, as they were denied the means to provide that support.

“There are many cases of games that had less-than-succesful launches that, due to the persistence and hard work of their creators, went on to become long-term financial successes, and we want to make sure we’re able to support that where needed.”

He continues: “We provide capital on transparent and aligned terms to developers, generally taking a flat percentage share of the revenue from their games in exchange for funding. The devs continue to control their studios with our support if and when they want it.”

Griffin’s SOF has already invested in fifteen titles, together with 9 introduced initiatives. These are:

• Menance (Overhype Studios)
• Begone Beast (Tandemi)
• Expedition: Into Darkness (Antediluvian Interactive)
• Vaunted (Lost Lake Games)
• Gilded Destiny (Aquila Interactive)
• Darkwood 2 (Ice-Pick Lodge)
• Kinstrife (Finitude)
• Highland Keep (HighlandArchitect)
• Hellfordged (Moonpyre)

The fund has additionally invested in six unannounced initiatives, together with a sci-fi grand technique recreation primarily based on a preferred e book and TV franchise, a gladiator administration simulator, and a dinosaur multiplayer RPG. These initiatives embody each self-published titles and people with publishers, a number of of that are signed by Hooded Horse.

“We’re comfortable moving fast with this fund,” says Tuosto. “After announcing and getting the word out more broadly to developers, we expect the pace may even accelerate, as we’ve been operating rather quietly until now. Ultimately, we need to carefully research each potential investment to ensure we can keep this working well and as a long-term source of capital for indie games, so we’re going to take the time to be very considerate on which games we invest in, but we’ve got a great team and no limit to how fast we can move as we find the right projects.”

“We’re going to be very considerate on which games we invest in, but we’ve got no limit to how fast we can move as we find the right projects”

While the SOF at the moment totals $100 million, Tuosto says Griffin is open to “a variety of funding needs, typically ranging from a few hundred thousand dollars to around $5 million.” He provides, “a great deal depends on the size of the team and the potential of the project.”

Regarding utility standards for the SOF, Griffin assesses early metrics reminiscent of wishlists, followers, demo engagement, and market dynamics, in addition to gameplay, which Tuosto describes as “often the most important step.”

“We have a particular affinity for systems-driven games, some of which fans end up spending years and years playing, but ultimately we are open to great projects of any kind. Above all, we are looking for innovation and quality.”

Looking forward, Tuosto emphasises that the core technique for the SOF is to “simply provide capital and support independent studios to launch successful games.”

“Beyond that, we’re excited about the possibility of activating these new intellectual properties in other formats and mediums. We’d like nothing more than to see the next Five Nights at Freddy’s (as an example) come from one of the successful games in our portfolio – and we’re prepared to put significant resources behind helping to make that happen.”