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Coming out of stealth earlier this week, gaming startup Proxima announced both its funding round and its inaugural game Lumari, a social sandbox adventure game that appears to be a cross between Animal Crossing, Pokémon, and Minecraft.
The game studio raised $1.6 million in pre-seed funding led by London Venture Partners, with participation from Konvoy Ventures, Progression Fund, Valhalla Ventures, Maveron LLC and Artichoke Capital.
Most of the money will go towards the development of the game, which is still in its early stages.
Proxima founder Ran Mo is a former chief product manager at Electronic Arts (EA) and previously worked on The Sims, one of EA’s largest video game franchises. The Proxima team consists of five game industry veterans from Riot, Storm8, Wildlife Studios and Unity.
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While specific details about Lumari are being kept under wraps, Mo told TechCrunch that, as with other sandbox games, players will be able to visit each other, chat, and build things together. The game also allows players to collect creatures (basically companion animals for players), build a home and habitat, create a garden, and explore a vast world. Lumari means “beings of light”, according to Mo.
Customization will be an important part of the game, Mo noted, including the ability to customize characters and even the creatures.
“Ultimately, we want to build this so people can find their place,” he said. “We think of it as a canvas for people to express themselves and hang out on.”
As seen in the trailer below, players will also have to battle what appear to be purple-colored creatures. “Beware, danger lurks over the corners of this broken world,” writes the Lumari website.
The game is not expected to release for another two years or more, Mo revealed.
On June 15, Lumari will have its first community playtest, which will end on July 15. Players can sign up at playlumari.com. At this time, the playtest is single player and users must have a Windows PC to participate. When Lumari officially launches, it will be available on more devices.
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