DARK SLOPE SECURES $1.7M CAD IN TRIPLE INVESTMENT FROM XSOLLA, CANADA MEDIA FUND AND ONTARIO CREATES TO DEVELOP A BLOCKBUSTER VR BRAWLER GAME
DARK SLOPE SECURES $1.7M CAD IN TRIPLE INVESTMENT FROM XSOLLA
Leveraging initial seed money from Xsolla’s Funding Club, Dark Slope was awarded additional support from Canada Media Fund (CMF) and Ontario Creates for the production of “Monster Bash Block Party,” the ultimate VR kaiju simulator
18 August 2022 (TORONTO, ON) – Dark Slope, the Toronto-based virtual production and metaverse gaming company, announces that it will be developing a new virtual reality game title following financial support through international video game commerce company Xsolla’s Funding Club. The $1.7 million CAD funding will support the development of a Kaiju fantasy fulfilment brawler entitled Monster Bash Block Party, in addition to other unannounced titles. Through initial backing from Xsolla, Dark Slope has today announced additional funding secured from both Canada Media Fund (CMF) and Ontario Creates.
In Monster Bash Block Party, players find themselves as Kaiju rampaging across immersive cityscapes. As they move throughout the multiple landscapes within the game, players will engage with the city around them, picking up buildings, vehicles and infrastructure to fend off the swathes of humans trying to take them down. Each Kaiju is also outfitted with its own unique strengths and weaknesses, as well as special abilities such as energy beams, stuns and lightning to resist human defences. On top of this, monsters all around the globe can also battle each other, in Monster Bash Block Party’s one-on-one Monster Fight mode.
As an independent developer, Xsolla has committed to support Dark Slope in its production process from concept through to post-launch. The titles have received the support of Xsolla’s Funding Club following a thorough review of the game’s pitch, playtesting, and reviewing their commercial potential predicated on unique gameplay and opportunity within the VR market. The game was then presented to one of the games industry’s largest pool of investors and publishers through the Funding Club.
Following this success, Dark Slope went on to secure additional support from CMF, a partnership between the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Canadian cable industry, which supports the creation of original content from Canadian creatives including video games titles Dead by Daylight and Outward. Dark Slope was also awarded funds from Ontario Creates, an agency of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport for the province, which catalyses the production of content across a number of sectors, including digital media. Through financial support, programs, services and partnerships, Ontario Creates aims to build the region’s capacity to develop award-winning media.
Production of Monster Bash Block Party is the latest in a number of major developments for Dark Slope, including the recent launch of an immersive location-based entertainment (LBE) simulator experience with branching narratives based on the Transformers IP. This service project was produced for VRStudios for North American entertainment chain Dave & Buster’s. Dark Slope has developed a series of other exciting VR single player and multiplayer titles including The Ultimate Obstacle Course which will be presented at Xsolla’s booth at Gamescom later this month.
Dan Fill, President of Dark Slope comments, “If you like Rampage, you will love this game! Monster Bash is a fantastic, satisfying VR experience. Working with Xsolla the past few months has been amazing. They are a truly great partner with insight and excellent feedback. We are also extremely grateful for CMF and Ontario Creates for supporting this exciting title. We can’t wait to share it with publishers at Gamescom.”
Lawrence Mien, Director of Partner Experience at Xsolla comments, “Having looked through Dark Slope’s pitch and testing out gameplay potential, we’re excited to see how Monster Bash Block Party turns out! Canada is the world’s third most important hub in game development, and we’re proud to have been able to support independent studios alongside CMF and Ontario Creates in the funding and commercial scalability of their games. ”
Eyal Kleiner, Dark Slope’s Head of Business and Corporate Development, and Stephen Bosco, Dark Slope’s Senior Art Director will be present at the upcoming Gamescom from 24-28 August in Cologne, Germany. For those interested in speaking with Bosco and Kleiner about upcoming projects like Monster Bash Block Party at Gamescom, please contact darkslope@swiperightpr.com to book a meeting.
About Dark Slope
Founded in 2018, Dark Slope pushes the boundaries of multi-sensory entertainment center spectacles, virtual reality experiences, immersive games, and motion capture-driven virtual production for television. From its 8000 square foot studio, Dark Slope leverages its warehouse-scale virtual production stage with proprietary pipeline, tools, workflows and game-engine technology in order to bring stories to life in new ways. Based in Toronto, and with a global workforce, Dark Slope combines advanced technologies with compelling storytelling to reimagine the future of entertainment. Visit https://darkslope.com/ to learn more.
About Xsolla
Xsolla is a global video game commerce company with a robust and powerful set of tools and services designed specifically for the video game industry. Since its founding in 2005, Xsolla has helped thousands of game developers and publishers of all sizes fund, market, launch and monetize their games globally and across multiple platforms. As an innovative leader in game commerce, Xsolla’s mission is to solve the inherent complexities of global distribution, marketing, and monetization to help our partners reach more geographies, generate more revenue and create relationships with gamers worldwide. Headquartered and incorporated in Los Angeles, California, with offices in Berlin, Seoul, and cities around the world, Xsolla supports major gaming titles like Valve, Twitch, Roblox, Ubisoft, Epic Games, Take-Two, KRAFTON, Nexters, NetEase, Playstudios, Playrix, miHoYo, and more.
For additional information and to learn more, please visit xsolla.com
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