When sitting down at the Shark Punch office at the time of our last article, we spoke at length about how the game industry is rapidly changing thanks to the rise of alpha launched games – works in progress that have enough content for gamers to get a feel for the game but still early enough to see the game progress and help shape the direction. With momentum behind Steam’s Greenlight program it seems like there’s no going back to polished 1.0 game launches, and if you engage your audience correctly you can build a $2.5 billion dollar company, like Minecraft’s rise from alpha.
While moving The Masterplan through Greenlight, it became clear to Shark Punch that there’s new problem for game developers and gamers. Suddenly every game developer needs to be a better media about itself, and there’s a discovery problem of helping gamers find great games. Originally Shark Punch worked on this platform as a side project, but has since raised €1.2 million by London Venture Partners in an Angel List syndicate with DN Capital, Reaktor Polte, as
well as private angel investors. The result is Playfield – a platform bringing gamers and game developers together – a response to Steam Greenlight’s limited community features and restricted platform.
”We started the company initially to develop a new game called The Masterplan, but after many discussions with other game developers, we realized that discovery is a massive problem for both developers and players. The question is rarely ‘is there a big enough audience’, but ‘how to reach the right audience’”, says Jiri Kupiainen, CEO of Shark Punch.
“The number one problem for game developers today is user acquisition and we know that Playfield will help game developers to get their games discovered by relevant gamers”, Kupiainen continues.
In proper early-access mindset, Playfield has launched in an open beta, allowing you to follow, like, and comment on games.
