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Game maker raises $7 million

By Tricia Duryee
Times Eastside business reporter

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Piggy-backing on a recent partnership with toy-maker Mattel, Seattle-based Screenlife has received $7 million from investors to develop more of its signature board games.

This week, Mattel launched a version of the company's Scene It? game in stores across the nation. With this deal, the game will be sold in more than 8,500 stores, including Target, Wal-Mart and Toys R Us. It had been sold in 350 stores, including Nordstrom and Wizards of the Coast.

The game, officially launched a year ago this month, uses a DVD player with a traditional board game. The game features footage from 180 films, including "Young Frankenstein" and "Legally Blonde," and asks players to guess what movie is playing from short clips or altered images. A shot might come slowly into focus, or the faces of the actors might be blurry. The game has 600 questions.

The most recent investment is the company's second. It previously raised $2 million. Both rounds were raised entirely from wealthy individual investors known as angels.

David Long, co-founder and chief executive, said the angel community was a good source of money.

"We found that there is a lot of money out there looking for the right idea," Long said. "We've had very strong local support. The company has a significant amount of momentum."

The company doubled its office space to 3,000 square feet, and Long will fly to California this week for a launch party being thrown by Mattel. It will feature a game-show version of the product, where celebrities like "Weird Al" Yankovic will compete for $50,000 that will be donated to charity.

Mattel has wagered that DVD gaming is the next big platform in the industry and expects Screenlife to produce 10 to 15 products in the next five years, Long said. Additions to the game will be based on television shows and possibly sports.

The company has 16 employees but expects to have more than 20 by the end of the year, Long said.

Tricia Duryee: 206-464-3283 or tduryee@seattletimes.com

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