10 Jul Emerging game developer begins work on prototypes
Green Bay, Wis. – With the support of a local equity investor, an early-stage video game software design company recently launched pre-production game development, and it is intent on marketing its games to major publishers such as Microsoft, Sony, and Nintnedo.
Selling its products to the “big boys” of gaming will be a challenge for Frozen Codebase Productions, LLC and its president, Ben Geisler, but the recent investment will help. Frozen Codebase received a $270,000 boost from NEW Capital Fund, LP, a private equity limited partnership headquartered in Appleton, Wis.
“We were impressed with Ben’s background,” said NEW Capital Fund manager Charlie Goff. “He had a good prototype that demonstrated an idea he’s working on.”
Frozen opened its doors on June 30 with seven employees, including Geisler, a programmer and lead games instructor at ITT Technical Institute in Green Bay.
The funds are “barely enough to cover the employees we have now,” Geisler said, but they will allow Frozen, working from the Advance Business Development Center incubator on the Northeast Wisconsin Technical College campus, to develop and market prototypes.
“We’re looking toward more casual games in the arcade market,” Geisler said.
An example of such a game is Marble Blast, in which players race their marbles through moving platforms, hazards, and power-ups to complete courses in record time. Geisler said his specific game projects will be divulged at a later date.
Frozen staff programmers, artists, and designers come from Raven Software, Radical, and GarageGames, and have worked on a variety of successful titles, including Hulk Ultimate Destruction and Quake 4.
Goff said NEW Capital’s investment also was motivated by Geisler’s intangible qualities – his passion and his energy. “Ben’s got that in spades,” Goff said. “This is the prototype investment for us, located in northeast Wisconsin with potential for rapid gorwth.
“We were just tickled to run across it. Something like this is not easy to find.”
Lori Ritter, program manager for Advance Business Development Center, said Frozen Codebase Productions is a perfect fit for the new incubator. “Ben’s group is a collection of fine minds from around the country coming to the Green Bay area to live, work, and grow a technology company,” Ritter said in a statement. “It’s the ideal business incubation scenario.”
Related stories
• Gaming conference explores interactive media in learning
• Video game technology could improve physician-patient interactions
• Businesses and educators to preview video games for training
• Game designers, researchers to demo healthful games