Candy Crush product director forms Snowprint Studios

A new studio has been formed by some of the minds behind Candy Crush Saga, Angry Birds and other world-conquering hits.

Snowprint Studios was co-founded by Alexander Ekvall, who was previously director of product at King and oversaw the development of Candy Crush.

Ekvall takes on the role of CEO at Snowprint and leads a team of more than a dozen designers, artists and other professionals who have worked in lead roles at Rovio, DICE, Unity, Zynga and more. Snowprint has also secured Wooga’s head of studio Wilhem Österberg, I/O Ventures’ managing partner Paul Bragiel and Next Games CEO Teemu Huuhtanen as advisors.

Snowprint Studios will focus on free-to-play mobile games aimed at a mid-core audience, and is already hard at work on “a new kind of RPG” based on Norse mythology. 

The team has already completed an initial round of seed funding, led by Jari Ovaskainen, one of the earliest investors in Supercell – recently named as the world’s most successful studio in our latest Develop 100.

“We saw a significant opportunity for innovation in gameplay and presentation that could make mid-core games more accessible,” said Ekvall. “Traditional gamers are now finding themselves with a powerful gaming platform in their pockets, while casual and mid-core players are beginning to move beyond mobile’s simpler offerings. 

“Snowprint Studios’ games will sit at a crossroads between these gamers, inviting every kind of player to explore gameplay with new, challenging and accessible mid-core components.”