Frost Giant Studios, a video game development studio founded by Blizzard Entertainment veterans Tim Morten and Tim Campbell, is the first tenant reported to date for Innovation Office Park, the new Irvine Co. office development at the intersection of Sand Canyon Road and the Santa Ana (5) Freeway.
The game developer said it moved to the low-rise, creative office campus over the summer.
“Game development lends itself reasonably well to collaborating remotely, but returning to an office has really helped communication and efficiency,” Morten told the Business Journal.
The company’s new space has ample room for future expansion in the building, and the campus at large, it said.
“We’ve adopted a 2/3 schedule, where Monday and Friday are optional work-from-home days, and Tuesday through Thursday are core office days,” according to Frost Giant.
Its new offices are “just down the road from our friends at Dreamhaven,” another game developer startup with notable ties to Blizzard, officials noted.
Frost Giant said in May that Dreamhaven “will be acting in official advisory capacity to us.”
Dreamhaven was founded last year by Mike Morhaime, co-founder and former CEO of Blizzard Entertainment, and his wife, Amy.
Its offices are a few blocks away at the Sand Canyon Business Center, another Irvine Co. office park.
Morhaime’s Plans
Morhaime, the Dreamhaven CEO, says that “since announcing the company one year ago this month, we’ve doubled the team across our two internal studios and central team to 50 employees.”
“We can’t share specifics around our production schedule, but we have two internal studios, Moonshot Games and Secret Door, working on two different games. We look forward to sharing more as we get further along,” Morhaime told the Business Journal on Sept. 16.
“We are building a diverse team of incredibly talented developers, many of whom have helped create genre defining games. We want to build a supportive and inclusive environment that cultivates creativity and innovation, where teams can do their best work,” Morhaime added.
Dreamhaven was advertising for three positions, including audio designer, on its website as of Sept. 17.
Frost’s FundingÂ
Frost Giant, meanwhile, said it currently hopes to peak at around 50 employees for its first project, not including various outsourcing partners.
Morten told the Business Journal on Sept. 15: “Frost Giant expects to close an A Round by early 2022,” while their upstart firm’s first game will take “multiple years” to launch.
Frost Giant said it is developing a real-time strategy-based game, an area that Morten says “has a tremendous heritage in gaming, and it’s ripe for a renaissance.”
Morten and Campbell previously led production and design for Blizzard’s StarCraft II and Warcraft III, respectively, which are considered among the most successful real-time strategy games.
Frost Giant said in March it had raised a total of about $9.7 million, including investments from Korean venture capital fund Kona Venture Partners and Jared Smith, the co-founder of Rxbar protein bars.
“Frost Giant has received a lot of early encouragement, from players and investors.  We have a team of 30 people now collaborating between contractors and full-time staff, headquartered in Irvine,” Morten said.
While its Innovation Office Park headquarters are open, “some folks are working fully remote, even from exotic locations like Shanghai, South Africa, Maui, and Germany,” Frost Giant said.
The company was advertising for two open positions, including tech artist, on its website as of Sept. 20.Â
