Three Melons, an Argentina/US-based developer of short-session, branded online games, has secured $600,000 from Santander Bank. The 3-year old startup is in the business of creating casual Internet games, which they refer to as “engaging and socially empowered snacks of entertainment”, commissioned by media companies, advertisers / agencies and video game publishers.
Update: Three Melons says the funding came from Santander but also current partners and angel investors, and will be used for extending its product strategy and further growth in the Web and smartphone gaming market.
The company has built up quite an impressive customer reference list since it started out in late 2005, having created and distributed branded online games for companies like LEGO, Coca-Cola, Audi, Disney, Fox, AT&T, etc. Three Melons builds advergames based on Flash and Unity3D, and has set up proprietary multiplayer server infrastructure (Camarero) as well as a custom Flash game development framework (Daiquiri).
Casual online gaming sites and developers are a dime a dozen, but Three Melons seems to have carved out a nice niche for itself in creating short and great-looking advergames for top advertisers and media companies, and it’s most likely going to use the extra cash to pursue more market share within that same target group.
The company is based out of Buenos Aires, Argentina but also set up an office in Los Angeles for business development in the U.S.
(On a sidenote: I just wasted half an hour with the LEGO Indiana Jones game, in case you were looking for a recommendation on which to try first.)
That is a good news we are waiting them to Turkey.
Nice to see this investments in the middle of the crisis environment.
I will try their “Free” games. I hope it won’t be too bad enough..
http://www.smartbloggerz.com
Wow, Three Melons really is a great company. I will try their games.
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This is really something to look at, considering that the in game advertising industry is looking at close to an $800Million market by 2012, all these start-ups are going to be interesting.
Ok, Lego Indiana Jones mini-game is just AWESOME xD
Excelente saber esto de una empresa Argentina.
Felicitaciones! de todo el equipo de CUOMA Design Studios
Una gran noticia para toda la industria interactiva y más en épocas de crisis. Un empujón de confianza para los que conformamos la categoría en Argentina.
Felicitaciones!
diego
Smartbloggerz (what a stupid name), please drop dead. No one likes a spammer, especially the ones that hide under semi-relevant comments. You’re what’s wrong with the Internet today. Crawl back to the hole you came from.
Great news, not only for the tech/VC sector, but also for Argentine software. Congratulations!
Congrats to Captain Melon and all his crew !!! Keep up the great work you are doing guys.
Now I know why you missed all those soccer games!
Congrats and keep that innovation coming!!
I met Pablo and Nicolas from Three Melons last year in San Francisco at the GDC. We had a quick Rock Band session at the Sony Store in the Metreon.
Congratulations on your current and future success!
These guys made a really cool game for Pepsi recently. Actually has a bunch of big name soccer players in it.
http://pepsifootball.com/game/