Former Valve dev, Rick Ellis, forms Sharkbite Games

As reported by Geekwire, Former Valve developer Rick Ellis has opened up about his new venture, Sharkbite Games.

Ellis was lead developer and founder of the Steam platform and marketplace, and also worked on titles like Half-Life 2. Now, Ellis is starting work on his own studio, Sharkbite Games, in partnership with his wife, Susan Mackey-Ellis.

The husband and wife duo, along with six other industry vetrans, are working on two titles and following a financing round, has raised $1.25 million for games development.

The company, based in Bellvue, Washington, currently have two titles in the works. A casual mobile game is scheduled for release later in 2017 and a bigger multiplayer game is planned for 2019 for PC and mobile. According to the company’s LinkedIn profile, Sharkbite is "bringing PC/Console social components into the mobile world in a unique multiplayer RPG experience."

"We are a group of industry veterans that have worked together in some capacity previously and all share a common passion for building amazing game experiences,” Ellis said to Geekwire.

Previous to launching Sharkbite, Ellis was vp of production for freemium entertainment producer Z2, which were acquired by King in 2015, and had also worked for Monolith Productions as director of development.