Our 2D artist Antti Pesonen has been spending his time recently with the concepts for new materials and decorations we need to make the urban locations on Earth look good, support the story and feel like the remnants of actual cities. Naturally, it’s all still fully editable.
“It took me all of two minutes to decide to join the company when I saw the gameplay,” says Thorbjörn Warin, the newly hired head of marketing for the Helsinki-based Grand Cru, the creators of their upcoming release, The Supernauts. Warin had previously worked as a head of marketing for Wooga, but left in September of last year to take some time off and do freelance consulting for startups.
Compared to moving to Berlin from Stockholm, he found moving to Finland much easier and friendlier. ”It’s really been a dream. Everything is a little more Scandinavian up here. You get your digital number and you can do stuff online. In Germany you always have to carry around a folder of papers and wait in line. Very few people speak English when you have to deal with the government.”
Warin joined Wooga actually in a very similar situation to where he’s joining The Supernauts right now. “I was person number 12 coming in after closing initial funding, and kind of the first person on board taking care of marketing and business development stuff and build that up.”
Read the whole article on Arctic Startup.
Grand Cru, an independent game studio based in Helsinki on the leading edge of social game development, added Thorbjorn Warin as marketing and business development director. His role is to assist with the creation of the company’s cross-platform, content-creating game, The Supernauts. Thorbjorn joins Grand Cru from Wooga, a leading social game publisher, where he served as the head of marketing.
During Thorbjorn’s time as head of marketing at Wooga the company increased in size ten-fold, becoming one of the top three providers for Facebook games, and closed a funding round for $25 million. As marketing director at Grand Cru, Thorbjorn will integrate with the executive team to oversee user acquisition, business development, localization, community management and customer care for The Supernauts. This addition to Grand Cru’s core staff of gaming executives comes shortly after the developer closed $2 million in seed funding.
“To join the Grand Cru team is to join one of the most exciting gaming start-ups in Europe, if not the world,” said Warin. “It took all of two minutes playing The Supernauts to recognize that Grand Cru’s first game has a winning formula. I’m eager to begin lending my expertise in marketing and business development to help the game and the company to reach its full potential.”
The Supernauts features a persistent virtual world with cartoon-inspired artwork and visual aesthetic, where players collaborate to make in-game secret hideouts, solve puzzles and even their own games. The Supernauts will be accessible from mobile devices and the web, with players being able to interact together cross-platform.
“Adding Thorbjörn to head up Grand Cru’s marketing and business development is the next critical step in launching The Supernauts,” said Markus Pasula, CEO, Grand Cru. “We already have a superior product and technology development team; Thorbjorn’s experience in the social and mobile games business is the next crucial step in helping turn The Supernauts into a success for our company and partners.”
John Hardin
Wonacott Communications
[email protected]
+1 (310) 477 2871 667
As you can see, it’s now possible to lift, carry and stack objects… like cars! Still some rough edges, but the interaction is fully functional and works with pathfinding and everything. Our level designer Saana Vartama has already created several new missions with movable objects.
“We first came across Finnish studio Grand Cru in the summer of 2011 when it decloaked from stealth mode. Now, however, the developer formed by the principals of Real Network’s Mr Goodliving studio has burst into the prime time, announcing details of its $2 million seed funding round and debut game The Supernauts.
Dealing with the cash first, it’s received a majority investment from French venture outfit Idinvest Partners, which manages €3 billion in equity. There are also several individual investors, most notably Playdom co-founder, Rick Thompson. He’s previously invested in mobile gaming companies such as Iddiction, Funzio and Red Robot Labs.
Other angels include former Google EMEA head of mergers and acquisitions Anil Hansjee, former Wooga head of studio Henric Suuronen, and Nicolas Béraud, who founded of Betclic, one of the leading European betting companies.”
Read the whole article on PocketGamer.biz.
