Launches, Learnings and Templates!
As part of the 500 Global accelerators, this week I am writing directly from their office in Hamilton Ave(Palo Alto). We're right in the thick of startup sessions, crafting our roadmap for the upcoming weeks and months leading up to demo day and the fundraising whirlwind. If this update seems a bit verbose, you know why.
Now, let's chat about July. This month was full of learning, we knocked out some major milestones, collaborated with a bunch of game developers, and of course, bumped into a few speed bumps along the way. Let's dive right into it:
Launched Multiplayer Configurations
Multiplayer gaming can happen anywhere and anytime. We envision Playroom as a Universal Kit that enables games to be playable in any scenario imaginable. We've taken a step forward in this direction by supplementing our resources with new documentation. It details how developers can craft and deploy various configurations of their games, all from a single hosting on Playroom. (you can read more here (opens in a new tab))
Playroom Kit now supports more game engines
During gamejam we received multiple requests to support more web game engines including Unity (which let’s be real is not the best when it comes to web). We were already on the case, and I'm pleased to report that our Unity integration is almost complete and currently being put through its paces.
Also thanks to one partnering game studio (Bekho) who tested our framework and also helped us in launching support for Playcanvas 🥳 . Godot is next based on a user survey!
Released 3 Game Templates
Our conversations with developers have underscored the need for more practical examples showcasing the use of multiplayer features and how our kit interfaces with different libraries.
Based on our learnings, we released game templates during gamejam catering React, Threejs and Phaser. More Templates, more remixing, more games (opens in a new tab)!
We saw 10+ games created within 72hrs
With over 50 signups, we were thrilled to witness the creation of more than 10 multiplayer games within just 72 hours. The process of building multiplayer games proved to be quite challenging, often intimidating developers. However, the feedback we received was overwhelmingly positive, with participants expressing their satisfaction by stating, "This was surprisingly simple, and we will certainly utilize it for future game development." (you can watch us playing here (opens in a new tab))
What more we learned?
-
Well, for indie developers, getting started with multiplayer often feels like staring into a black hole. They're left scratching their heads about what information to synchronize and how to handle it, more than the tech stack itself.
-
To get a better understanding, we handed our tools to a couple of game studios, asking them to turn their existing titles into multiplayer versions. To our delight, they managed to integrate Playroom within a day.
-
We also set out to understand game studio timelines and rates by connecting with over 10 game studios based in MENA and LATAM. It was a revelation to discover that the development cost difference between single and multiplayer is on average a whopping 4x!
-
All this simply highlights that current systems are overcomplicated. The cost to build multiplayer games just seems to skyrocket, which is something we're passionate about changing