Founded in 2011 by NUS School of Computing graduates Don Sim and Alwyn Lee, Daylight Studios has quickly emerged as one of Singapore’s leading indie game development companies.
The start-up’s first game, Reign of Heroes, was released in December 2011 on mig33 (now known as migme). Within thirteen days it had become the #1 game on the mobile entertainment platform, going on to attain more than one million players in 170 countries over the next six months. Other popular mobile games subsequently released by the company have included Hisho Collection Mall Empire, Spirit Horizon and Swords of Fate.
In 2015, the company ventured into PC games, releasing Holy Potatoes! A Weapon Shop?!, which went on to sell more than 125,000 units worldwide. Over 900 videos have been uploaded on the internet showcasing the game, attracting more than 4.8 million views. In 2017, the company released Holy Potatoes! We’re in Space?!, and Holy Potatoes! What the Hell?! in partnership with German video game publisher Daedalic Entertainment.
“Our company is unique in that we are all very passionate in what we do, and strive for the highest quality games possible,” says Alwyn. “We all have very varying backgrounds, most that are unrelated to video games, and it speaks in volume in our games as we all see game development from uncommon angles.”
With total funding of more than SGD$1.7M, and support from NUS Enterprise, the start-up remains focused on developing and producing original games, as well as sourcing titles from outside of Southeast Asia to publish under its wholly-owned subsidiary, Quest Drop.
MILESTONES
Founders Don Sim and Alwyn Lee graduate from the NUS School of Computing with Bachelors in Communication and Media (Honours)
2010
Daylight Studios establishes in May; releases Reign of Heroes in December
2011
Daylight Studios raises USD$660K in a seed funding round led by Red Dot Ventures
2013
Daylight Studios establishes mobile publisher Quest Drop as its wholly-owned subsidiary
2014
Daylight Studios raises USD$704K in Series A funding from Raffles Venture Partners, Koh Boon Hwee, Lim Swee Yong, Harry Inaba, and other angel investors.
2015
Released Holy Potatoes! We’re in Space?! and Holy Potatoes! What the Hell?!
2017
Daylight Studios receives investment from Adways, which also partners Quest Drop to help develop new advertising products and services for mobile game developers entering Southeast Asia
2016