As development hotbeds go, the Nordic region has been at the frontline of pushing and helping define this generation of the games industry.

With the region's landscape consistently being transformed by the continued emergence of indie developers, enterprises aplenty are moving into the area with a view to swooping in and seeking out the next big mobile indie game.

One such company is Stockholm based early stage seed investor, eMocial Gaming Ventures. The firm is dedicated to seeking out the best mobile development talent from across the Nordic region and investing in it.

"There are plenty of small talented studios with mobile games that have got millions of downloads but haven't yet reach their full potential and earned the money they should of due to the lack of rightly implemented business models, or in the opposite case due to the lack of marketing," Alex Aguilera, founder of eMocial, tells us.

"The crowded app store and free-to-play puts completely new demands on the developers, it now days requires two distinct areas of expertise to develop successful Free-to-play games with global potential."

Linking up

In a portfolio that includes promising indie outfits such as Lead Turn and Fun Rock, it's Visual Dreams – based in the Swedish city of Nörrkoping - thats gone some way to establishing eMocial as an investor to be reckoned with.

The studio's new match-three-puzzler, Linkies Puzzle Rush, has garnered praise for its addictive and innovative gameplay, which has seen it claim prime real estate on iTunes across 100 countries and inch close to one million downloads ahead of its big launch.

"We've only been up and running since March 2013, and we have already invested in three of the most promising mobile gaming teams in Scandinavia with great premium F2P games coming up this fall with real hit potential," adds Aguilera.



Aguilera believes that the success of Linkies is no fluke and credits the growing pool of top talent and his experience overseeing the growth of EA's free-to-play games as pivotal.

"I saw small teams come up from nowhere and releasing great mobile games that reached millions of players. That was an opportunity that wasn't going away in the nearest future," says Aguilera.

"However, I also realised that they weren't making the money they deserves in large part to a shortage of F2P business experience.

"So we began a new disruptive company that both invested in these studios at an early stage and brought the operational senior expertise from companies like King, and EA to the small talented mobile gaming studios.

"Combining it with creating a network of small mobile gaming companies with world class development and business knowledge to give traditional giants an even a harder time in the app stores."

Disruption

Despite eMocial's good start, Aguilera believes the company's unique model means competition is something the firm embraces.

"Our main competitors are also our partners due to the disruptive structure of eMocial Gaming," adds Aguilera.

"In terms of investment, we have larger VCs that could invest much higher amounts than we do, but instead they see us as a good potential partner because we are more niche and have more insights and knowledge about the market.

"Good F2P publishers could help the teams monetise their games, but in our case we help the teams create a strong game able to attract the interest of leading publishers and then work with them to get the best possible publishing deal, if we of course decide against going the self-publishing route."

It might be early days for the company, but many believe eMocial is making all the right moves, in the right arena at the right time, which can only be a positive thing for indie developers in the region.

"We intend to continue investing in over a dozen more of the most talented mobile gaming developers in the Nordics over the coming years," concludes Aguilera.

"We are also looking to further bolster our ranks by recruiting senior talent to our own team in order to have the tools needed to continue providing top level support for our growing portfolio."
Thanks to Alex for his time. You can find out more about eMocial Gaming Ventures on the firm's website.