Participated · Seed · Aug 2025

Qloud Games is a Sydney-based independent game studio developing Loftia, a live-service, cross-platform cozy solarpunk MMO focused on cooperative, eco-conscious gameplay. Loftia emphasizes community-driven development, large-scale server quests, and systems like hydroponics, wind turbines, and biofuel that reinforce sustainability themes. The game offers robust customization for homes, outfits, gadgets, and pets and is designed as a non-competitive, relaxing social world. Qloud has run a successful Alpha and built a 600,000-strong audience across TikTok, Instagram, Discord, and Reddit. The studio raised $1.3 million on Kickstarter in 2024 and the founders personally invested over $500,000 from a Canva ESOP. Qloud operates a team of about 30 developers drawn from indie and AAA backgrounds and plans to use funding and community input to carry Loftia through launch and ongoing live service.

Participated · Seed · Aug 2024

Jam & Tea Studios is developing AI-driven interactions for non-playable characters and content generation, debuting with Retail Mage, a roleplaying game about a wizard salesperson at a magical furniture store. In Retail Mage, players type free-form responses and actions while AI NPCs generate dialogue, behaviors and even in-inventory items in real time; artists still create 2D/3D assets. The studio has experimented with multiple large language models including OpenAI, Google’s Gemma, Mistral AI and Meta’s Llama and is fine-tuning models to keep NPCs in-character while applying guardrails. Creatives are heavily involved in crafting NPC motivations, backstories and example lines to shape the AI outputs. The company says it will protect and center human artists and writers as it integrates generative models. Jam & Tea is building additional ambitions beyond Retail Mage (internally called Project Emily) that will feature more environments and a longer storyline. The team of eight has raised seed funding and plans further fundraising as it readies Retail Mage for public release later this fall.

Participated · Seed · Mar 2024

Brain Jar Games is a new genre-defying game studio led by award‑winning designer and creative director Will Cook with co‑founders Rohan Knuckey, Krys H Kozlowski, Kaitlyn Kincaid, and Marcin Deja. The team brings veteran AAA franchise experience, having worked on RIFT, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and Call of Duty. Their debut title, Dead as Disco, fuses John Wick with Baby Driver and emphasizes easily shareable content creation. The studio combines music and action to reach mainstream audiences on platforms like TikTok, Twitch, and Discord. They aim to release the first game in roughly 24 months. Financially, the company has just closed a $6.7M seed investment co‑led by Transcend and Menlo Ventures, alongside other investors and a syndicate of industry veterans.

Participated · Equity · Mar 2024

Good Trouble is a San Francisco-based games studio founded in early 2023 by Arman Nobari. The studio's mission is to create games that put player experience and accessibility at the forefront. Its work emphasizes clever strategy, unique base-building, and more ways to win, with thoughtful UX designed to make it easy to jump into, per Nobari. Good Trouble raised $1.8M in funding to support its plans. The company intends to use the funds to expand operations and development efforts.

Participated · Seed · Feb 2024

Stoke Games is an all-remote indie studio formed by industry veterans Veigar Bouius and Jon Diesta, whose credits include League of Legends, Hogwarts Legacy, MultiVersus, and Disney Infinity. The studio’s debut is described as a “shooter-adjacent” or strategic shooter that emphasizes strategy, deliberate action, and judgment over twitch reflexes. Stoke plans regular updates, cross-platform play, and “fair monetization practices,” and intends to develop the game in close alignment with community feedback. The team currently employs 14 people and has attracted veterans from Riot, Blizzard, Respawn, Epic, Bungie, and Phoenix Labs. Stoke will use new funding to ramp up playtests with early community members and pursue further expansion through 2024.