Embria, a venture builder with a basis in the EU, has announced a $500k seed investment in 10K Riders. A unique “creative-yet-reliable” co-development methodology, used by 10K Riders, a publisher of mobile F2P games, connects teams around in-depth concepts, allowing them to share knowledge and significantly raising project success rates.
10K Riders, which was established in August 2021, is already collaborating with 78 studios worldwide on more than 100 video game projects (UK, France, Cyprus, Eastern Europe, Vietnam, etc). The mobile gaming market is still a “red ocean“: barely 10% of studios earn more than $100,000 annually, while less than 1% earn more than $1 million. Studios investing their limited funds in endeavors that the market merely does not desire is one of the key causes of unsatisfactory results.
Although they struggle to discover enough suitable projects, publishers now have a better understanding of the needs of the players. The solution is co-development, which entails publishers offering studios projects with better potential to develop together from inception. Co-development, however, has its drawbacks, such as the risk of blindly depending on originality or the possibility of creating rock-solid clones with far lower potential. 10k Riders’ strategy aims to reduce creative risks while maintaining the potential for higher rewards.
“Investing in 10K Riders is a perfect opportunity for Embria to support an experienced, ambitious team. We share their vision of talent support, and we see great potential in the co-development of mobile games,” said Stan Gorozhankin, Head of Analytics at Embria.
10K Riders have created a space consisting of many innovative features and implementations for a minimal price
As a well-known publisher in gaming industry, 10K Riders is committed to giving initial concepts careful development before delegating them to companies with suitable expertise. Extensive documentation and spreadsheets for game balance are provided for each topic. In order to reduce risks and error costs, the partner studios have access to shared art direction resources and asset packs.
The approach to work with 10K feels like the future of publisher-developer partnerships. The 10K team immediately charmed us with its professional and friendly atmosphere. They make decisions based on data and always explain why decisions are made, while always ensuring those decisions are made together with our team. 10K is confident, supportive, and collaborative, and we feel we can make better games working together with them
Tom Bagstevold, Ascended Studio, Norway.
Up to 40 teams may often work on five different concepts at once. Nevertheless, each team is given the freedom to expand its concept in accordance with its own unique style, genre, and setting, adding unique features and mechanics that enhance the original idea. Every feature is a/b tested, and the top results are distributed to every studio that is taking part.
This is how 10K Riders develop a setting where everyone has access to a large number of effective, cutting-edge features and implementations for the cost of one or two of their own. In this model, even unsuccessful projects frequently produce significant gains by demonstrating and testing worthwhile technologies.
“We’re developing the product for the new market for us and wanna thank 10K Riders for all the consultations we’re getting from them! We highly appreciate all the attention and research on similar games and product advice we get. We look forward to launching our game together,” Tran Viet Duc, DD game, Vietnam.
Ilia Tumenko, the CEO and founder of 10K Riders, is the author of the concept underlying the co-development approach. Ilia was in charge of launching and advertising popular games including Gold & Goblins ($7m/90d), Idle Evil Clicker (10m+), and Dragon Champions ($1m/29d), and Idle Light City (5m+) while he was a publishing director at AppQuantum. Previously, Ilia served as the CEO of a consultancy firm where he promoted games like TanksAlot (which has had more than 10 million downloads), Day R Survival, Art of War 3, Human Evolution, and Decentraland ($1 billion+ valuation).
The mobile gaming industry is in choppy waters right now, and we want to offer it our approach that can serialize success. We strive to share the knowledge and resources with the studios, offering a predictable path from the concept stage to launch, in a joint effort to release excellent games
Ilia Tumenko, founder and CEO of 10K Rider
With the help of Embria’s investment, 10K Riders intend to increase the number of game studios, develop its own staff of producers, analysts, and game designers, and make investments in key strategic areas including its own R&D and hybrid publishing.
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