Launching a new game studio presents new challenges, even for experienced developers. To kick-start their journey, Dead Astronauts joined the Haven program.

In April 2024, Erik Morin, Tobias Nyman, Robert Moschos, and Thomas Tedemalm, all with experience from AAA studios such as Massive Entertainment, set out to reinvent the open world genre in their new studio, Dead Astronauts. To kick-start their journey, they joined Haven. Through Haven they got strategic support to build their company, and they went on to successfully raise over €4 million to fuel their ambitious vision.

– The Haven program takes a holistic look at what is needed for a startup video game company - from funding and company-building, to strategic and practical support, says Erik Morin, CEO of Dead Astronauts.

"Haven gave us the tools and perspective we needed"

Having built careers in games over the past 18 years, the founding team brought senior industry experience into the new game studio. Nevertheless, launching a new studio presented new challenges. And Haven helped the founders overcome obstacles through key strategic advice, and access to a network of experts.

During the Haven program, Dead Astronauts hit several major milestones:

• Kicked off their funding journey, successfully raising over €4 million
• Began building a world-class team around their vision
• Made rapid progress on their first playable prototype

– While we as a founding team have a lot of experience building and launching games, certain aspects of building a company and a team from scratch were new. Haven gave us the tools and perspective we needed, says Erik Morin, CEO of Dead Astronauts, and goes on to provide advice for future game studio founders:

– Don't wait, just start. Be mindful of your costs, and be crystal clear about the type of company you're aiming to build, not just the game.

The specifics of their first game are yet to be revealed, but Dead Astronauts are well on their way developing a bold new game experience for players - a journey that accelerated during the team’s time in the Haven program.

Find out more about Haven here.

Photo: Founders Tobias Nyman, Erik Morin, and Thomas Tedemalm, with their Haven 2024 diploma. Missing in the photo is Robert Moschos.