Startup Dazzle Rock’s $7M Mobile Social MMO Still In Development

Last year, we reported on a small Finnish startup studio called Dazzle Rocks that received $6.8 million dollars from investors to create a voxel-style social sandbox MMO for mobile devices. The game, creatively codenamed Project X, promises a vast and colorful cartoony world built using a custom social MMO Engine where players can build, explore, and go on adventures with other players.

“PROJECT X is the working title of our new social sandbox MMO. Saying that might immediately make you think of a number of other social sandbox games, so if we were forced to reduce ourselves to just the comparisons – we might describe ourselves as a lasting Animal Crossing island experience, hosted on your best friend’s Minecraft server, with all the DNA of hanging out in an interesting Habbo Hotel lobby.

– but that’s where we hope the comparisons will end. Our aims are to really capture and scale the best social elements of those types of games to as many people as possible.”

Back then, the team said that they were nearing open beta launch in the west which will be followed by a release in key Asian regions including South Korea, China, Japan, and Taiwan. More than a year down the road and the game is still in closed beta with signups still open on the official site for anyone interested in taking the game for a spin.

“Already on the islands there’s a lot you’re able to do using basic harvesting, building and play tools to create your own dream home and begin impacting the world around you. As development progresses, we hope to enable even deeper experiences around building and creating fun interactive or beautiful spaces for you to live, hang-out and play in. Imagine mini-games, obstacle courses, and other fun experiences that you can build yourself.”

As for the game’s business model, Dazzle Rocks says that it will “largely be free to play in general,” which basically means that there will be microtransactions and probably even a battle pass or VIP subscription of some sort. Players needn’t worry about pay-to-win mechanics because, as the devs say, “the winning strategy is to be yourself.”

More information can be found on the Project X Subreddit.