Now that its first mobile game Wraithborne has been downloaded by 200,000 users, Alpha Dog Games is looking for as much as $1 million to help develop its next game.

The Bedford, N.S., game developer launched Wraithborne for mobile devices running on iOS (Apple’s operating system) in November, having developed the action-adventure game with only a three-man team in about six months. Focusing on the quality of the graphics and storyline, they created a low-budget game that generated enough buzz to keep going to work on the sequel.

“Real success would be 1 million downloads, but some games generate only 500 to 1,000, so I guess we’re in the middle,” said Nick Riley, the design expert in the three-man team. “Any time you get around a quarter-million users, it shows you are building up your fan base.”

What’s astonishing about Alpha Dogs is how much they have accomplished with just three people – Riley, CEO and technical expert Jeff Cameron and artist Shawn Woods. It’s not unusual for a company to employ 30 people to launch their first games, and Alpha has been able to gain traction with one-tenth that number.

It’s also worth noting that Wraithborne has generated impressive online reviews in the gamer world. Slide to Play called it “an attractive, enjoyable dungeon-crawler”, while Touch Arcade said it “succeeds in making each strike feel physically better” than most iOS action games.

“Wraithborne is a fun, beautiful, exciting and addicting [role-playing game] adventure,” said 8 Days a Geek. “I can only hold my breath until the sequel arrives.”

The Alpha Dog team is pretty stoked about the sequel as well, so much so that they are now trying to raise $500,000 to $1 million to develop the next game. Riley said the $500,000 minimum would allow them to leverage the investment through government programs, and hire about 10 to 12 people in the near term.

He added that the marketplace has changed even in the past year, and gamers have greater expectations, so the progress on the next game will depend on funding and possible partnerships with large studios.

The sequel will likely be a free game and the company will gain revenues by selling users special features – such as the ability to buy weapons, or to pay a dollar or so to avoid a time delay to move up a level.

Wraithborne, which was distributed by a midsized U.S. marketing partner called Crescent Moon, has already been updated a few times, and Alpha Dog is working on a version for Android-based devices.