Funding Announcement
EA, Epic Games, Riot Games, and Square Enix Leaders, Launch Spectarium and Raise 5M Euro Seed Round To Build Cross-Platform Action RPGs
The Company’s Flagship Game, Myths, Leverages AI Tools to Customize IP and Enable Unique Game Experiences For Individual Players
FINLAND, September 20, 2023 — Spectarium, a remote-first company building best-in-class cross-platform action RPGs, today announced a 5M euro seed round led by BITKRAFT Ventures with participation from Delphi Digital and Framework Ventures. Founded by Romain Schneider, Mark Peterson, and Plarium Co-Founders Avi & Gabi Shalel, the Spectarium team boasts decades of game development and design experience, with members from EA, Epic Games, Riot Games, and Square Enix. The funding will be used to scale the team and further develop the gameplay of the company’s first RPG title, Myths, which is scheduled to soft launch to specific targeted audiences in 2024.
"Eight years ago, the Spectarium core team came together with a shared mission: to create a game envisioned by our community. This journey fostered a deep trust with our global player base and solidified our team's passion for crafting games that resonate. While we remain community-centric, the studio has evolved and is committed to developing cross-platform, mass-market games that captivate gamers worldwide. By merging standout visuals with generated content, we aim to craft unique and endless gameplay experiences,” commented Spectarium CEO, Romain Schneider.
The company’s flagship title Myths, is an action RPG game that puts fun and endless gameplay at the forefront. Inspired by ancient mythology and beloved classic games, Myths is an epic dungeon-crawling experience with unique twists. Characters, equipment, and portals absorb the properties of defeated bosses, introducing a novel strategy element into the gameplay. Additionally, the first players who find and defeat legendary new bosses can own, upgrade, and make them available to the entire game community, ensuring in-world fame from the entire player base.
A fundamental concept underpinning the game's design is the creation of an engine that tailors gameplay activities and the proprietary Mythological theme IP to match the preferences of each individual player. As a result, one player's journey might revolve around engaging in boss battles within the realm of Valhalla, while another embarks on a journey through the intricacies of a Mayan temple. Similar to the TikTok algorithm, the Spectarium game engine intuitively aligns gameplay experiences and thematic elements with the specific preferences of players, essentially making every game unique and personalized.
Spectarium’s innovation lies in the symbiotic collaboration between AI and storytelling. The AI serves as the narrative backbone, dynamically tailoring the storyline to players' choices and the evolving game maps. “At BITKRAFT, we believe that content generation is one of the most promising forms of AI-enabled creativity and a paradigm shift in studio economics. Spectarium’s approach unlocks highly personalized and endlessly customizable gameplay experiences while expanding on proven ARPG systems with the team’s deep genre expertise, and harnessing the global IP of ancient myths to engage diverse player bases across platforms,” commented Jasper Brand, Partner at BITKRAFT Ventures.
Spectarium’s culture is built around the belief that people are its greatest asset and has a 97% retention rate for employees who have been with Spectarium for one year or longer. The company has deployed a Feel Good Officer and a Feel Good KPI system to ensure high morale and attract high-caliber talent.
For more information regarding the open roles at Spectarium, please visit the Careers page.
About Spectarium
Spectarium is on a mission to develop cross-platform mass-market games that players worldwide will love and remember without compromising gameplay experience and quality. Founded by leaders from EA, Epic Games, Riot Games, King, and Square Enix, Spectarium merges standout visuals with generated content to craft personalized and endless gameplay experiences. The company’s flagship title Myths, is inspired by ancient tales and offers an action RPG experience where players can shape their own adventures. Powered by Spectarium’s innovative game engine, every player's journey in "Myths" is unique, adapting to match the preferences of each individual player.
About BITKRAFT Ventures
BITKRAFT Ventures is a leading global investment platform for gaming and Web3 according to research from InvestGame and Drake Star Partners. Founded by industry pioneer Jens Hilgers, BITKRAFT serves a worldwide network that spans many of the industry’s forward-thinking startups and founders—including former executives from the likes of Activision Blizzard, Riot Games, Epic Games, Google, and Apple who are working to build and operate the virtual worlds and economies of the future. BITKRAFT operates four venture funds with a total of over $830M in assets under management and has over 100 companies in its global portfolio as of August 2022. BITKRAFT’s experienced international team works closely with exceptional entrepreneurs to create significant value through early candid partnerships, unique domain experience, entrepreneurial history, and a global ecosystem of strategic partners. Find out more about how BITKRAFT and its portfolio companies are pushing the boundaries of Synthetic Reality® by visiting https://www.bitkraft.vc/vision.
