Studio Spotlight

Boomlagoon: Moving the Needle

October 8, 2014 — by Casey Rock

main

Studio Spotlight

Boomlagoon: Moving the Needle

October 8, 2014 — by Casey Rock

Boomlagoon has achieved a large amount of success in a short amount of time, as far as new game studios go. Although they only opened their doors in 2012, they’ve already had success with two games, have secured major funding, and have just released another game.

The studio’s success can be traced to its founders’ growing team.

Starting Out

0zAawK2J
Antti Stén, CEO and Founder, Boomlagoon

CEO and founder Antti Stén always wanted to start a game company ever since first joining the industry at Digital Chocolate in 2004. Though he didn’t have the skills necessary then to launch such an endeavor, he learned as much as he could from companies like Digital Chocolate and Rovio.

In 2012, he and fellow founders Tuomas Erikoinen and Ilkka Halila (who shared his vision for games) teamed up and made their first game, Noble Nutlings. “We all knew each other from Rovio and all had a very specific skill set needed for game development,” Stén says. “We decided to jump on the opportunity and never looked back after that.” He continues, “We got a lot of help and encouragement from people in the gaming industry here in Finland (and) worked hard to get our first game ready.”

It paid off in a giant way.




The game only took a few months to complete, but was featured by Apple and got good reviews from both media outlets and gamers - being downloaded over 2 million times. They managed to gather enough capital to hire two employees, and also made a sequel that was specifically targeted to LINE Messenger users called LINE Nutlings Tournament, in which they took the game and revamped it so it was a better fit for tournament-style social play. The fledgling company had a lot of take-aways from the experience, both in terms of how to make fun games and how to monetize free­-to­-play games.

The Funding Phase

Boomlagoon_Logo
“The team, the style of games, and the level of polish were really the things that moved the needle.”

The game also served as a “solid track record” when it came to securing funding for Boomlagoon, though Stén notes that “the team, the style of games, and the level of polish were really the things that moved the needle.”

“Our investors were impressed by the team and the quality of our work,” he says. “The whole investment round went really smoothly. We met with a number of top tier investors and ended up with the ones that we really saw eye-to-eye with.”

The team ended up securing $3.6 million from various investors which allowed them to grow the team to 13 people and open up a second game track. “It also puts us in a solid place in terms of self­-publishing our upcoming games,” Stén says.




Finding a Focus

Interestingly, one of the hardest aspects of starting Boomlagoon wasn’t securing funding but trying to decide what exactly the company should do. The company was initially going to make cross-­platform HTML5 games, but the founders soon realized a clearer focus was needed. It was at that point they they decided to develop iOS games on Unity. “Once that decision was made, things really started to pick up,” Stén says, noting that getting to decide what to focus on is one of the most rewarding things about having your own studio - that, and being able to “work with absolutely awesome people every day.”

Indeed, the majority of Boomlagoon’s team are veterans in the industry or possess outstanding skills. Stén notes that the company tries to focus on getting people that are top performers in their field and mesh with the company’s culture.

Boomlagoon_Group_Photo
The majority of Boomlagoon’s team are veterans in the industry or possess outstanding skills.

“From the culture perspective, we value transparency, creativity and initiative,” Stén says. “Everyone is free to contribute to all the game projects we have going on, and we feel that the discussion and the level of freedom really pushes our concepts to the next level.”




Additionally, the team seeks to “bring joy to as many people as possible regardless of time and place” and believes the mobile free-to-play business model fits that philosophy best - making it the market they have focused their efforts on. Stylistically, the company focuses on polished, cartoon style 2D games - an art style the company finds approachable to both Western and Eastern markets.

However, the company is always keeping an eye out for improvements in mobile hardware and operating systems and figuring out how to use them to bring even more immersive experiences to their fans. They also make sure not to restrict themselves to any specific game genres. “If the idea is fun and fits our process, we’ll jump on it,” Stén says.

Moving Forward

Monsu_Title_Image
Monsu, Boomlagoon’s newest game

Currently, Boomlagoon launched their newest game Monsu - a platform game featuring collectible cards where you can run, jump, fly, and even ride a llama. Players start out with the main character Monsu, a “cuddly, little green monster,” and as they progress through the game, players can collect other characters that help Monsu in his quest.

Stén is quick to point out that despite the company’s quick start and successes, the company is just getting started. “We want to make awesome games that are played by hundreds of millions of players. That’s our next milestone!”




Find out more about how Boomlagoon is doing through their Facebook and Twitter!

 

Comments










Casey Rock

Casey Rock

Casey Rock is a staff writer for Gamesauce. Casey loves rock climbing, hiking and singing in indie rock band Open Door Policy. He also streams games under the moniker The Clumsy Gamer. You can catch him on twitter @caserocko and @realclumsygamer.

logo
SUPPORTED BY