Finnish Indie Studio Yrdvaab Secures €130K To Advance Space Strategy Game Ephemeris

The grant, from the European Structural Investment Funds, is a crucial step as the studio aims for an early access release on Steam within the next year.

This funding adds to the €200,000 private investment round closed earlier this year from unnamed German backers, allowing the small team to continue development while expanding its technical capabilities.

“While this year has been challenging for the game industry in general, we have been quite fortunate,” says Tuomas Pöyhtäri, the lead designer and programmer for Ephemeris. “Earlier in the year, we received a substantial amount of private funding, which is now supplemented by this support from the EU. We have already been able to hire a second programmer, allowing us to take a giant leap ahead in game development.”

This year has seen several studios and platforms close significant funding rounds: Ultra (Estonia) raised €10.8 million to expand its team and platform, VOYA Games (Germany) secured €4.4 million to launch its debut title, Studio 42 (Cyprus) obtained €3.2 million for development, and Hoora (France) raised €1.1 million to build a mobile game-discovery platform.

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On the tech side, TILKI (UK) brought in €1.8 million for its AI-powered creation platform, while General Intuition (Switzerland) closed a remarkable €114 million round bridging gaming, robotics, and drones.

Altogether, these rounds represent around €139.6 million in new capital across the sector this year. Though Yrdvaab’s €330k total is smaller, it highlights the growing relevance of mixed public-private funding models for early-stage studios in Europe.

Notably, Yrdvaab is the only Finnish developer featured in the 2025 EU-Startups reports, marking its distinctive position within the Nordic indie scene. The studio’s success also underscores the stabilising role that EU-backed regional support continues to play in the volatile gaming market.

Yrdvaab began working on Ephemeris in 2021, a game that blends classic 4X gameplay (explore, expand, exploit, exterminate) with real-time, three-dimensional tactical combat. Drawing inspiration from titles like Master of Orion, Homeworld, and Total War, the game’s standout feature is its realistic approach, including Newtonian physics that govern ship movement and interactions during combat.

The studio previously attempted a crowdfunding campaign for the game on IndieGoGo in October 2024, with a goal of €30k and hopes to reach €100k. While the campaign raised only €8,400 from 157 backers, it drew attention from German investors, who subsequently provided €200k to continue development.

According to Yrdvaab, the lack of international media coverage limited the crowdfunding campaign, but the title gained traction in Germany, likely contributing to its successful investment round there.

Now, with both public and private backing, Yrdvaab is pushing forward with the early access launch of Ephemeris. The game, initially available for Windows, is already listed on Steam for wishlisting and updates.

Beyond the realistic space physics and variety of ship scales, Ephemeris promises a player-friendly interface designed to reduce the burden of micro-management even when controlling vast interstellar empires. Additionally, the game features a procedurally generated technology tree and dynamic universe settings with each playthrough.

Despite a challenging start Yrdvaab has now found a stable path toward the launch of Ephemeris, leveraging a mix of European public funding and international private capital to bring its vision to life.

Ephemeris showcases how EU regional support can play a crucial role for small studios navigating the unpredictable gaming landscape especially when traditional funding avenues like crowdfunding fall short.

With fresh funding, an expanded team, and a prototype that’s already attracting attention Ephemeris is poised to carve out a niche within the space strategy genre if it can maintain momentum and avoid future funding challenges.

While the final release timeline depends on development progress, the studio is confident that early access will be available within the next year.