Rocky Road raises $2.5m for mobile MMO
Creators of mobile app QuizUp band together to deliver a new casual, open world game “in an accessible way”
A new Icelandic studio has raised $2.5 million in a round of seed funding to finance the development of a new open-world game for mobile.
Rocky Road was founded in 2022 by QuizUp founder Thor Fridriksson, and former Plain Vanilla Games executives Vala Halldorsdottir and Sveinn Davidsson.
Fridriksson will serve as the CEO of Rocky Road, while Halldorsdottir and Davidsson will operate as COO and chief design officer, respectively.
The round was led by Crowberry Capital and Sisu Games Ventures.
"I have always been a fan of huge game worlds where players can interact with one another, meet new people and create long lasting relationships," says Rocky Road co-founder and CEO Thor Fridriksson. "The problem with the overwhelming majority of current open world games is that they are incredibly complicated and have a very steep learning curve which prevents the majority of gamers from getting into the game.
"We are building Rocky Road on the premise that normal people are excited to play and socialise in a massive game world and we are focused on delivering that experience in an accessible way."
Plain Vanilla was acquired by Glu Mobile back in 2016 in a $1.2 million deal, but now sits under the EA umbrella following the firm's $2.1 million acquisition of Glu in February 2021.