'It's exciting for us': Sask. game developer Noodlecake Studios celebrating $6.3M sale

A Saskatoon-based mobile gaming company says it's not going anywhere, despite a major business deal to a Chinese firm worth $6.3 million.

In April, Noodlecake Studios sold 70 per cent of its company to ZPlay, a Chinese mobile video game publisher.

Noodlecake Studiosis best known as the developer ofthe Super Stickman Golf series of games, which won the Metacritic award for iOS Game of the Year in 2016.

"It's business as usual," said Noodlecake CEO and co-founder Jordan Schidlowsky. "Being here in Saskatoon has a lot of advantages. We've had a lot of opportunities to move this company to Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, California but to be honest, in this industry, you can compete anywhere."

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Starting with just two people in 2011, Noodlecake has expanded greatly over the last six years. While it started out with game design, Noodlecake has expanded into video game publishing. Most notably, it picked up the venerable Myst series for mobile.

"I remember playing Myst before the internet was a thing," he said. "That was really cool working with those guys. Cyan, the company that designed Myst, they're just really cool, old-school computer dads."

Schidlowsky is also excited about the prospect of working with ZPlay. China has become the world's largest market for mobile gamesand the partnership could help expand the company's reach.

"It was really tough for us to get entrance into that market," he said. "You almost need a Chinese partner to distribute things there."

Meanwhile, the company plans on using the investment dollars to expand its business locally.

"The cost of living here is great," he said. "We've got a great university program, we have great students coming out of that program. For us, the management is still the same, we still have the same goals as a company. We plan on staying in Saskatoon for a very long time."