Doak, Ellis Get £50,000 Investment For GangstaPets

Former Free Radical execs David Doak and Steve Ellis have founded social gaming studio ZinkyZonk -- and the pair has received a £50,000 ($76,110) investment to develop GangstaPets, a new Facebook game. UK trade site Develop reports that a regional investment body, the East Midlands Development Agency has provided the grant to the pair, and that GangstaPets will be cut from a similar cloth as hit titles Mafia Wars and FarmVille. Free Radical, developer of Haze and TimeSplitters, was dissolved late in 2008, although founder Doak was believed to have left the company prior to the closure. Free Radical was later acquired by German developer Crytek, and another founder, Karl Hilton, heads the studio under the name Crytek UK. Develop's report also says Doak and Ellis formed ZinkyZonk during 2009, but GangstaPets is the first title announcement to emerge from the studio's quiet founding.