Astra Fund repositions as "thinky" publisher Astra Logical following layoffs

Astra Fund, the investment fund that launched in 2022 to support "thinking games," has now evolved into an indie publisher called Astra Logical following a recent spate of layoffs.

A press release describes Astra Logical as a publisher of "premium thinky games." The current team includes veterans from Amazon Games, Serenity Forge, and Those Awesome Guys, who'll be working with advisors like former thatgamecompany producer Eileen Hollinger and Carto developer Nick Suttner—both of whom were previously involved with Astra Fund.

In its previous guise, Astra offered a range of financing options ranging from small $45,000 investments or larger sums worth between $150,000 to $1 million. It backed notable projects including Zach Gage's newspaper puzzle platform Puzzmo and Furniture & Mattress, the latter of which was a new studio co-founded by David Hellman, Nico Ricabarren, and Nick Suttner.

Despite only launching two years ago the company seemingly laid off a number of employees in December last year.

Astra hoping to rebound as a full-fledged indie publisher

Astra Logical's launch roster includes the debut title from Coincidence, a new studio established by former members of the Zachtronics team and other unannounced projects it claims are "equally exciting."

The company said it has already released Snakebird Complete on Nintendo Switch and PC and will publish Star Stuff later this year

Outlining its mission statement, the reborn publisher said it's determined to "foster the growth of logic-driven games and creative problem solving by publishing games that players will love to solve."

"The team is mission-driven and cares about ethos and design, and has been purposefully created to possess an incredible potential of bringing thinky/puzzle field mentors and experts into their circle," it added.

"Together, they strive to help developers with their design ambitions so that the publisher’s signed studios can make the best games possible. With this line-up, Astra aims not only to support the games on a publishing site but also to offer genre-specific hands-on game design expertise."

Game Developer has reached out to Astra to learn more about the company's pivot and the layoffs reported in December 2023.