Quick take:
- Redemption Games has spun out from AppLovin.
- The company also announced $7 million in seed funding after becoming an independent studio.
- The Carlsbad, California-based company is renowned for creating the mobile hit game Sweet Escapes before it was acquired.
Redemption Games has spun out of AppLovin. The video game maker also announced a $7 million funding round as an independent studio. The fundraising was led by Play Ventures with participation from Bitkraft, Merit Circle DAO, Orange DAO, and a few game industry friends.
The video game studio is renowned for creating the mobile hit game Sweet Escapes before it was acquired by the Palo Alto, CA-based software company through a strategic investment. According to Redemption co-founder Michael Witz, Sweet Escapes generated more than $60 million in lifetime revenue.
Redemption Games founders Michael Witz and Dan Lin are also behind Jam City’s hit mobile game Cookie Jam, which generated more than $500 million for the mobile game publisher. Jam City also acquired Mob Science, another game studio co-founded by Lin and Witz.
The two developers acquired Redemption Games from AppLovin, once again becoming an independent studio, Witz told GamesBeat. “And subsequent to that, we went out and raised a seed round of capital. It’s like starting out fresh again,” he said.
“Some might say, that being a small, independent studio trying to build and publish mobile puzzle games in the teeth of a highly competitive market might seem a bit crazy,” said Witz. “But emerging new technologies are going to unlock some fun new player experiences and we couldn’t resist going after them.”
On the other hand, his co-founding partner Lin commented: “As an engineering co-founder who still likes to get my hands dirty in the code, we have built a culture that’s pretty attractive for engineers who like to be able to focus on coding and who are curious to explore how some of the latest technologies in AI and Web3 can actually be applied and leveraged to create mass market games.”
Redemption Games wants to explore new gaming technologies including integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and digital collectibles. The company wants to leverage blockchain technology to help deliver the overall solution to its gaming community.
Although Redemption focuses on free-to-play games, making its titles available to all players regardless of whether they are on the blockchain, Witz said the company will add web3 elements giving players an option to trade in-game assets.
However, Redemption is also looking to develop blockchain-based games from scratch in order to create a fully functioning game economy.
“The only way you can make a game economy really work with the concept of tradable assets is to design it from the start. We are approaching it where it’s going to be invisible to the player as much as possible.”
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