Small Giant Games初创阶段回顾：坚持做小做精

原作者：Vincent Landon 译者：Willow Wu

2013年成立的芬兰游戏工作室Small Giant Games次年10月完成了一轮310万美元的投资。他们对未来信心满满。

“商业领域的某些权威人士给了我们考验，最终他们发现了我们的闪光点，这无疑让公司的信誉得到了大幅提升，”Small Giants CEO Timo Soininen说。

“这就意味着在第一个游戏发行之后，我们还有能力开发、发行一系列游戏。”

Small Giant Games（from goodnewsfinland.com）

Small Giant Games的创始团队累计有超过30年的F2P游戏开发经验，世界最大的免费社交游戏&青少年网络社区Habbo Hotel就出自他们之手。

新一轮融资的主要投资者是Stockholm和Palo Alto-based Creandum，其它还包括PROfounders、Spintop Ventures以及Capital A Partners。一些个人投资者也参与了：比如March Capital的Gregory Milken和诺基亚前CEO Risto Siilasmaa。2013年Small Giant获得的种子投资是70万欧元。

小而精

该团队目前约有10名成员，计划引进更多人才，但会继续保持一个相对较小的公司规模。

“融资得以让我们去招募更多伙伴，但是我们坚信小团队也能做大事。我们倾向于保持小而精的状态，而不是在现阶段快速扩大公司规模。我们不想让游戏质量受到影响。”

这家初创公司并没有透露《怪翅逃亡》的相关信息，但是Soininen说它会是一个全新的飞行游戏，包含丰富的角色动画和引人入胜的剧情。

Soininen表示如今每天都有数百个新产品发售，游戏市场竞争非常激烈。

“现在的环境十分残酷，所以游戏本身的特点非常重要。还有就是营销——你要如何在如此嘈杂的市场中突围？不仅仅是游戏市场，是整个APP市场。”

社区意识

对于Small Giants Games来说，将工作室设在赫尔辛基这个手游开发中心城市可以得到不少优势。数学和编程人才的水准都很高，但Soininen最看重的是社区意识。

“我们有很多同行和朋友，其中一些人的公司已经获得了成功，另一些人还处于初期发展阶段。我们会互相分享、交流，这种文化是非常独特的。”

“我们都是来自小国家的开发者，我们理解全球市场，这并不是一场零和博弈。如果另一家公司成功了，从长期来看这对大家都有好处。”

当被问及他希望人们如何看待Small Giants时，Soininen毫不犹豫地回答：一个易于管理、能做大事的小公司，一个真正的“小巨人”。

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

Small Giants game studio, founded last year, has just finished a 3.1 million dollar investment round.

Fresh from completing a 3.1 million-US dollar investment round, Finnish game studio Small Giant Games is looking to the future with renewed confidence.

“It gives us a huge credibility boost that some of the toughest guys in the business have grilled us and found something really interesting cooking here,” says CEO Timo Soininen.

“It basically means that we have the capability not just to launch our first game but to develop and launch a series of games.”

Small Giant Games was founded last year. The founding team has over 30 years of combined free to play game development experience from Habbo Hotel, one the world’s largest free to play social games and online communities for teenagers.

The lead investor of the recent funding round was Stockholm and Palo Alto-based Creandum, followed by PROfounders, Spintop Ventures and Capital A Partners. A group of private investors also participated, including Gregory Milken and Risto Siilasmaa. It follows a seed round of 700 000 euros over a year ago.

Small and tight

The team, which is currently about 10-strong, plans to bring more talent on board but stay at a modest size.

“The funding gives us the financial backbone to hire people but we firmly believe that small teams can do gigantic things. We prefer to keep the company small and tight than grow too quickly at this stage. We don’t want quality to suffer.”

The startup has revealed few details of Oddwings Escape, the title it plans to release at the start of next year but Soininen says it will be a new type of flying game with very rich character animations and a strong story line which will blend the genre boundaries.

With hundreds of games coming out on a daily basis, the current gaming environment is challenging says Soininen.

“It is a brutal market so the differentiation with the game itself is extremely important but also marketing and how to break through in the huge noise not just of other games but the whole app marketing market.”

Sense of community

For Small Giants Games, being in Helsinki, one of the main hubs for mobile games development, has considerable advantages.

The mathematics and coding talent is at a very high level but it’s the sense of community, which Soininen appreciates.

“We have a lot of colleagues in some of the very successful studios and friends in new upcoming studios and this culture of sharing and talking is something unique.”

“Coming from a small country, we understand the global market and it is not a zero sum game. If colleagues from another company succeed, it is good for everyone in the long run.”

Asked how he would like Small Giants to be viewed, Soininen replies without hesitation: a small manageable company which creates great things.（source：goodnewsfinland ）