Warsaw-based studio Dark Passenger has raised $3 million in seed funding to develop its first game, an unnamed multiplayer action project inspired by feudal Japan. The Games Fund and Blite Fund led the round, according to Game Developer; The Games Fund also confirmed its $3 million investment on its news page.
What the $3 million will fund
The funding is intended to support Dark Passenger’s debut project, which The Games Fund describes as a multiplayer action game inspired by feudal Japan. The investor says the project is an original intellectual property, not a continuation of an existing game series. The studio has not announced the game’s final title.
Dark Passenger CEO Jakub Ben said the investment helped the studio expand its team and establish the foundations for the project, allowing it to focus on production, according to Game Developer’s December 16, 2024 report.
Who founded Dark Passenger
The studio is based in Warsaw and was founded by Jakub Ben, its CEO, and Paweł Kuleta. The Games Fund managing partner Ilia Eremeev named both founders in his investment announcement.
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How the project differs from the team’s past work
Team members previously worked at CD Projekt Red on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077, while other staff have backgrounds at People Can Fly, Reikon, and Flying Wild Hog, Game Developer reported. The Games Fund also cites art expertise from RealTime Warriors and talent from Covenant.dev.
That experience does not make the new game a Witcher or Cyberpunk installment. The stated direction is multiplayer, with feudal Japan as its inspiration. Ben said the team is known for “triple-A, story-driven RPGs,” but that its “true passion has always been multiplayer,” as quoted by Game Developer. Eremeev characterized the founders’ interest as co-op multiplayer.
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What has not been announced
The available announcements do not specify the game’s exact mechanics or multiplayer modes, platforms, release date, or final title. They also do not give a more detailed breakdown of the seed-round terms. The project’s description supports calling it a multiplayer action game inspired by feudal Japan, but not assumptions about player counts, PvP or PvE, or how it will play.
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