Moonrise is a new games fund investing in diverse and inclusive studios
Moonrise, a new games fund, is investing its support and mentorship in up-and-coming diverse, and inclusive studios.
In an interview with IGN, Evva Karr – the CEO behind Glitch, a creator-led movement, cooperative-owned gaming label, and co-creators of Future of Play – explains that they noticed a serious problem within games. Small, diverse developers with seriously good ideas, were struggling – and not just through financial means but the ongoing struggle of figuring out how to publish their game, as well as market it out to the masses. Information that, as IGN points out, is not “easily accessible to a lot of up and coming developers.”
More importantly, these developers simply do not receive the same opportunities that they would if they were male, cis, and white.
With that in mind, Karr took the opportunity to do something and started up the Moonrise fund, “a bold new approach to backing creators.” Through this fund, Karr is offering studios not just the monetary investment to help get them started, but invitations to events, personal introductions, internal tools, and databases – all while allowing these studios complete agency.
The Moonrise Fund also offers mentorship, with advisors from the games industry that have shipped titles like Among Us, Falcon Age, and Subnautica across multiple platforms. They have the experience, and they are more than willing to help.
IGN explains that the Moonrise fund is Karr’s attempt to show the games industry that their are better – and more sustainable ways to create games.
The first three studios that the prototype fund has chosen to back are Virtuoso Neomedia (Raddminton, Killer Auto), Future Club (a game studio formed by developers behind Skullgirls, and Individisible), and last but not least, Perfect Garbage (Love Shore).
Although all three studios have had their own successes, their goals before the help of the Moonrise fund were not as ambitious as they could have been. As Son M, the project director of Perfect Garbage tells IGN, the goal now is to self-sustain.
Ultimately, Moonrise looks to change the games industry for the better by bringing in fresh new talent of the likes the industry has failed to keep in the past.
You can find out more about the Moonrise fund over at GLITCH.
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