“Me and Federico Laudani, my business partner and art director, we have always been passionate about video games and founding a structured development studio in our home, here in Sicily, was a project we had already had for a long time before the end of 2016, when Stormind was born “: so he told us Antonio Cannata, co-founder and CEO of Stormind Games.
Sicily is not a place that is generally related to video game production, yet Stormind Games is an important study on the Italian scene, linked to another very particular reality called Red Raion. Cannata explained to us: “We knew very well that before starting to work in the video game sector we had to lay economic foundations and build credibility. So, since Federico had a lot of experience in the field of animation films for amusement parks, in 2014 we founded Red Raion, a company that deals with the production of this type of film “.
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Red Raion proved to be the best way to later produce video games. After a few years, with more experience and the right stimulus to start, develop the first original project, that is the game Remothered by Chris Darril and Darril Arts, Stormind Games is born: “The company was born as a sister of Red Raion, but today the two entities are totally independent. We are proud to have been able to build two realities with solid roots. Sicily is an internationally recognized brand, having its headquarters here makes everything more particular and interesting in the eyes of potential partners, both Italian and non “.
Stormind Games is a constantly evolving studio, currently employing about 50 people and a dozen external resources, who are currently working on a new title, l’action-Rpg Batora Lost Haven, a video game that immediately aroused a lot of interest, winning an award at the Wn Dev Contest 2021 in the category of Best Game Developed in Unreal engine. Batora also represented Italy at the EuroPlay Games Contest. Cannata reminded us that “after Remothered we have not abandoned the genre survival horrorsimply when we decided to develop Batora Lost Haven, we realized that an action-RPG would be perfect for communicating the sense of discovery and for narrating Avril’s journey and progression ”.
The studio was not born to develop only survival horror video games, but this does not mean that it intends to dilute its stylistic code in videogame genres of all kinds, Cannata told us again: “We will not develop racing games, mobile games, simulation games, Ar, Vr or other, but we will always remain consistent with our core, that is the action-adventure and action-RPG “.
Especially for Stormind it is crucial that their products are based on intense stories, in order to create unique and exciting experiences for players and that “give the possibility to open the doors to potential sequels and franchises and have a distinctive visual style that makes them immediately recognizable to the public”.
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The collaboration with Team17
Stormind Games recently announced an important one partnership with the English team17Cannata confirmed to us: “The collaboration was born after a very long research. For Batora Lost Haven we wanted to make sure we find the perfect partner and we are really happy to have found such a strong independent publisher. We have chosen each other “. For him it is essential to create synergies with other operators in the sector regardless of nationality, especially when they have a long experience behind them.
In recent years, the growth of the game industry in our country arouses a lot of interest, but some critical issues persist: “We are very pleased to see that the sector has finally woken up from a long hibernation, perhaps also thanks to our work. We are proud to be Italian, but right from the start we aimed at the international market, taking as a model foreign studies that produced highly atmospheric games with a strong narrative, because the well-structured national ones they are mainly involved in racing, which we did not want fare”.
For the Sicilians of Stormind Games there is no doubt: if the goals are clear, it is no longer the origin of the studio that counts, but the strategy that is used to reach them.
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