This Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) combines two game styles: real-time strategy (RTS) and role-playing game (RPG)

The Hunters of Magic startup plans to launch the beta phase of its video game ‘White Spell’ this December, a Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) that combines two game styles: real-time strategy (RTS) and the role-playing game (RPG). Hunters of Magic is currently carrying out player response tests. “In the phase in which we are – says the promoter of the company Jonathan Larrínaga – we are delimiting certain aspects of the game little by little, because the good thing is that it is ‘free to play’, what means that it is community game, and we can open it to a part of the market, test the player’s response and balance it to see if we need to change aspects of its initial design. In January, we plan to go to market with the beta game, which will also respond to the original idea of merging the real-time game mode with the role-playing game”.

In order to develop these plans, Hunters of Magic has managed to close this summer an investment round of 161.920 euros with Seed Capital Bizkaia and the project accelerator Metxa that will finance the development of new products and the marketing area. “This capital increase – says Larrínaga – represents a significant support for the project and will enable us to capture the necessary resources to achieve our objectives”. He also assures that having Seed Capital Bizkaia and Metxa into the shareholding “is a luxury not only due to their capital contribution, but also because of the constant advice and support they provide us”.

Hunters of Magic was founded in May 2016, although Jonathan Larrínaga began to dedicate himself to the project of creating the video game ‘White Spell’ since he completed his studies in computer engineering in 2010. “I started working in a financial consultancy”, he says. “I just didn’t feel fulfilled and during my spare time I studied how to develop a video game: from the moment when you start with an idea till it is shaped and designed. I took it almost as a hobby, without setting goals, until it got to a point where I thought I could do something else. Little by little, we saw that the project was very ambitious and that it would require more time and money. Anyway, we continued for a couple of years, till 2016, when we were selected in the first Metxa acceleration program, in which we obtained a first capital increase. Shortly after, in June of last year, we established the company and began to dedicate ourselves fully to the project. The capital we had was not enough to undertake a project of this nature”.

High-quality recruitments

“The tour previous to the constitution of the company – he continues – had made possible to meet different people in the sector, what later helped us to make high-quality staff recruitments. Making the tiniest error in hiring when you have so little margin can be catastrophic. It is also key for the viability of the project to let the art team spend time giving to the game an own touch, an attractive aesthetic that is not an imitation of another game. For this reason, we have had to redo the whole game, since the way of working that we had followed in the previous years served to make a prototype for people to get an idea, but we needed to go one step further and make a quality product”. The staff of the company has been growing for that purpose and currently the company has six people dedicated to all the areas of the project.

In order to position the video game into the market, the managers of Hunters of Magic are aware of the importance of implementing a good marketing strategy. “We are making some forays into advertising on social networks, but we are not ready yet to launch our main strategy, which is specialized distribution; we have not yet reached that stage because the important thing now is not to get players, but to retain them”.

Larrínaga believes that the situation they will have next year will decide the future of the company. “The 2018 financial year will be decisive for us because it will be when we can see how far we have been able to go and the possibilities of development in the coming future”.