StudioMDHR抵押房产完成《茶杯头》；1930年代风格的豪赌售出600万份

做的是什么生意

An independent, family-run game studio (StudioMDHR) making premium hand-animated action games; its first title was Cuphead.

启动资金：Self-funded: Chad and Jared Moldenhauer remortgaged their homes; a Canada Media Fund grant application was rejected; Microsoft's ID@Xbox publishing deal added a little money plus marketing support.

起因

Brothers Chad (web designer) and Jared (construction) Moldenhauer started building a game part-time from a basement around 2010 after years of imagining their own platformers, and Chad's wife Maja joined during maternity leave. They applied for a Canada Media Fund grant and were turned down; Microsoft's ID@Xbox program agreed in 2013 to publish the game on Xbox One and PC with a little funding and heavy marketing support.

经过

After strong fan reception at E3, the family went 'all-in': they remortgaged their homes and expanded an eight-boss prototype into a full game. About 25 people eventually worked on it, 14 doing most of the work, and development ran past targets because Chad refused to approve hand-drawn art until it looked perfect. Cuphead launched 2017-09-29 on PC and Xbox One.

结果

Cuphead sold over 1M copies in its first two weeks, won best debut indie, best independent game and best art direction at The Game Awards 2017, reached about 1.5M copies by December 2017, and had sold 6M across Xbox, PC, Mac and Switch by July 2020.

可借鉴之处

一旦成功，一种独特且不妥协的创意赌注可以自我资助：工作室在美术方向和难度上抵押房屋，两周内超过100万份的销量证明了这次冒险。