Frogwares, a Ukrainian studio best known for its Sherlock Holmes games, somehow kept working through Russia’s unprovoked invasion of their country. And now, thanks to a big cash injection, they can continue to do so.
Writing on the company’s blogFrogwares’ Alex Striuk said the team was “proud to announce that we’ve received an Epic MegaGrant from Epic Games.” mega grants are major grants awarded by the publisher to assist in the development of “creative, remarkable, and innovative projects built in and around Unreal Engine and projects that embrace the open-source 3D graphics ecosystem to enhance”.
These grants can range from $5,000 to $500,000, and while Frogwares didn’t disclose how much they received, what they’re doing with the money suggests it was on the larger end of that scale. “The war negatively impacted our production processes and led to a partial disorganization of our studio,” says Striuk. “Funding from the Epic MegaGrant will be crucial in relocating employees to safer areas and helping those who have moved to remote regions of Ukraine or other countries in the EU to maintain financial stability.
As we reported in MarchFrogwares has offices in Kyiv and Dublin, and while these international collaborators have continued to work during the war, some locals have “become full-time volunteers in humanitarian efforts across the country,” while others have even “joined the Defense Forces” and are or will be fight the Russians.
You can read Striuk’s full statement below:
Until now, the war in Ukraine is still going on. During this time we need to feel strong as a studio, maintain a positive attitude and do whatever it takes to keep the business going while also providing our team with the support they need.
That’s why we’re proud to announce that we’ve received an Epic MegaGrant from Epic Games. The war negatively affected our production processes and led to a partial disorganization of our studio. Funding from the Epic MegaGrant will be critical in relocating employees to safer areas and helping maintain financial stability for those who have moved to remote regions of Ukraine or other countries in the EU.
The war also created a financial void for the studio, which has impacted our business. We’ve been hard at work over the past few months refreshing and maintaining the usual pipelines, and the MegaGrant will help us equip our team with specialized equipment essential to game development and migrate our data infrastructure.
In short, the Epic MegaGrant is being used to help soften the financial blow of war and stay on our feet, and we’d like to thank Epic Games for their support during this difficult time.
We would also like to thank our community for all of your kind words of encouragement. We hope for a safe and peaceful future and look forward to sharing more about our exciting projects with you soon.