New studio Rascal Games has raised $4.2 million in a seeding round led by game venture capital firm Patron.
The round included additional investments from Stephen Lim (co-creator of Valorant and Raidbase), Mitch Lasky (early investor at Riot Games, Thatgamecompany, and Manticore Games), and Stanislav Vishnevskiy (Discord CTO and co-founder).
Venture capital firm A16z and its general partner Anjney Midha also invested in Rascal Games following the studio's participation in its game accelerator Speedrun earlier this year, as reported by GamesBeat.
Money raised from this round will go towards creating a shared world group-based PvE adventure game known as Project Wayward, inspired by Sea of Thieves, Valheim, and elements of Minecraft.
Rascal Games was founded by Rick Ling and Jonathan Lin, creators of the gaming app Blitz.gg.
After the app was acquired by Discord in 2018, Ling and Lin went on to work for the social platform until earlier this year.
Brian Cho, co-founder of Patron, said: "Rick and Jon possess extensive experience in scaling Discord and building products from zero to one that gamers love. They are uniquely positioned to merge generative AI potential with their expertise in social consumer experiences, forging a path toward something new and special."
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