TWO Glasgow entrepreneurs have launched a crowdfunding campaign to fund the development of a computer game based on thieves trying to get their hands on famous works of art.

Jamie Yacoubian and Gary Fallon, creators of gaming start-up Handprint Games, have launched a campaign to raise $15,000 on Kickstarter to advance their ambitions. They are collaborating on the project with mystery artist SCR1BBLE, whose hand drawings are being reproduced on the firm’s latest game, Great Artists Steal. The game is described on Kickstarter as a “hand-drawn platformer” in which a “scribbled character in a 2-dimensional scribbled world” runs along the edges of photo frames to steal masterpieces such as Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.

The project’s Kickstarter page showed yesterday that more than $9,200 has been raised from 75 backers, with 11 days still to run (including yesterday). Backers can invest as little as £1 and up to £500 or more, with the upper level allowing the investor to work with the Handprint team to develop a level within the game. Rewards such as a custom portrait hand-drawn by SCR1BBLE are also on offer, depending on the level of investment.

Mr Yacoubian said: “We have learned the hard way that good ideas are only half the battle in the gaming sector. It’s one thing generating interest from investors, but the real competition is in the practical mechanics of gaming. We have gone on to learn valuable lessons from the experience, and we have put together a fantastic team of entrepreneurial Scottish game makers who are working solidly as a team developing new games new ideas and new creative thinking.”

Handprint Games has developed other games, including 3Reality and Punch Perfect. Based in the Whisky Bond, it was set up by Mr Yacoubian and Mr Fallon, both 27, in 2018 after studying accounting and finance at the University of Strathclyde.