Independent game development studio Welevel Today announced that it had raised $ 5.7 million in funding to transform the development of procedural games.
Bitkraft Ventures led the company based in Munich. The investment allows the LEAN development team of Welevel to expand its innovative AI tools which rationalize the development of games and create a dynamic and personalized gameplay, said Christian Heimerl, CEO of Welevel, in an interview with Gamesbeat.
Welevel has also announced its intention to expand its Development Team two for its next Triple-A Sandbox survival game. The project began development in 2021 using the internal generative models of Welevel and should enter into early access next year.
Additional investors in the round include BMWK (DLR), Goodwater and Providential investors Chris Carvalho (member of the board of directors in Roblox), Daniel Weinand (Shopify co -founder), Heiko Hubertz (founder of Bigpoint), Kun Gao (Cofounder Crunchyroll), Reichertze, Nate Mitchell (CoFounder Oculurul), Reichertze, Nate Mitchell (Cofounder Oculull), Reichertz (co -founder of the ESL) and other managers of the game industry.
Heimerl said Welevel build games motivated by passion, not monetization. To compete with giant game companies, Welevel operates AI to rationalize production, without compromising on quality and creativity.
The AI technology of the studio innovates on the construction of the world, the behavior of NPCs and the generation of quests, through sophisticated algorithms which make interactions adapted to each player. This system allows an adaptive narration where players’ choices shape the world unexpectedly, offering a really dynamic experience.
“We are huge fans of survival games and open sand trays, but when we looked for a game in these genres which corresponded to the scale of massive triple-A experiences, we came empty-handed. Triple-A development needs a huge amount of resources and budget that the two independent game studios generally do not, “said Heimerl. “After using AI in my old companies, I recognized the potential it has to allow the passionate small teams to produce games.”
He added: “In the past four years, our team has designed tools and an AI platform that allow us not only to compete with triple-a studios, but to overcome them with a living and breathable world. With Bitkraft, we found a partner that shares our passion and our vision. Our development process is unique, and with it, we can create the game of our – and many players – Dreams. »»
Welevel’s first game presents a change for the kind of Sandbox survival by introducing a living world that responds, evolves and challenges players in a way that has never been done before. (Of course, we would like to know how it is different from something like No Man’s Sky).
The company said that the game goes beyond traditional resources management systems by creating a dynamic relationship between the player and the environment. The NPCs are realistic, remembering the context of actions at stake, training relationships and helping players’ objectives. Other conventional survival systems such as construction and trade are improved by generative processes, which gives players greater freedom to build the worlds they wish.
“Chris brings a unique combination of series outings, technical depth and exceptional public understanding,” said Jasper Brand, partner of Bitkraft Ventures, in a press release. “Although it is an emerging studio to take triple-A ambitions in a large genre, especially in the first stages of AI adoption in games, we believe that lean teams that rethink development and break the current limitations in time and the scope will unlock unprecedented game and distribution vectors.”
He added: “Welevel, having established remarkable technological foundations over 4 years with only a handful of developers, makes creative decisions at fast speed and at marginal cost. Their fun and playable prototype already offers large gameplay systems, a high visual varnish and an experience that can capture players for more than 100 hours. »»
Beyond the initial project, the team provides for a vast content generated by the user and aspirations to develop in other genres and parameters. The company will be at the GDC 2025.
Bitkraft Ventures is the global investment platform in early stage for games, web3 and immersive technology, with assets under management totaling more than $ 1 billion.
Welevel’s long and winding road
Heimerl launched the company in 2021 in the middle of COVID-19. Before this lap, he had raised approximately $ 1 million. The company has 12 people and hopes to go to 30 this year. But it is rare to find game developers in Munich, which I noticed has not as many game companies.
“There is nothing crazy here,” said Herimerel.
He noted that Dark Is there. When he was asked how he ended up being a game developer, Hiemerl said he was a hardcore player all his life. He played the MMO Ultima online online when he was a child and he said that “ruined my school career”. He remembers at the age of 13 or 14 that he played the game like “A Madman”. But that was the time you had to pay computer time on time. He cost his parents something like 2,000 euros. However, he managed to convince the parents to give him money so that he could play a few minutes at a time.
“There is no other game that touched me as an online ultima. It just had this rocket. I can always hear music in the main menu, “he said.
He managed to avoid dependence on World of Warcraft. And he was able to build and sell some first AI companies. Quick advance in Covid, and Heimerl had sold one of his societies. He was sitting at home by doing nothing.
“I was chatting with friends and went with online friends. And they told me that they had started buying new computers to play Age of Empires. So we bought new computers to play this super old game. ”
He added: “And if you have a brand new computer at home, you don’t close it after playing two hours with friends playing Age of Empires. So I thought, “Hey, what am I playing now?” “”
He tried the shooters on the Playstation, but it was really bad to aim. He went a lot on Youtube to learn to shoot. And he was distracted by people who publish Minecraft videos. He started watching people play Minecraft, and he found that it was super entertaining. Then he started playing Minecraft and discovered how funny and he also watched other survival games such as sons of the forest and rust and archery. With Sons of the Forest, he found that you played it for a few days and then it was over.
He tried to modernize the game but did not really succeed. He then discovered City Skylines, a Sim Builder City game. He devoted a few thousand hours to it and did modding for this. He joined communities on Reddit and Facebook and spoke a lot about survival games and RPGs.
He said, “People constantly cut 2,000 trees or 10,000 trees. And you know you only like to cut 20 or 30 trees. You build these beautiful cities and buildings, but in the end, it is a ghost city. I thought it would be an incredible combination of having villagers also living in your survival city that you really build, while bringing together resources. I just lived there and give life to your ghost city. It was the general idea.
A friend told him that it was the most stupid idea he ever heard. The friend told him that he would need a huge sum of money, as if he was building a triple-a match. The fire said it started with a mobile game instead.
“But my goal was not mainly to do business in the game industry,” he said. “My vision was more as if I wanted to make this game, not just making a profit.”
The friend said he needed a lot of money to do it. Remembering his AI societies, one of which was a travel recommendation engine, he thought of AI solutions.
Being in Munich, he had a terrible moment before trying to find programmers who knew the Unreal game engine. And so he turned to AI. He saw that AI became better and better. When the generator took off, he explored technologies and decided that the big point was not the best model of AI.
“The main point is that you have a system that can simply work with a lot of tools. You have a very clear vision of the functioning of things and how things are attached, “he said.
The players told him that his project made no meaning. He became convinced that such people would never change because they were so stuck on the old habits. They have struck down the AI. In the meantime, he has started teaching a unreal engine in universities. He found people who were interested in irrecerse and were young enough to consider new tools.
“This is where we started to bring talents to the business,” he said.
Soon, the company understood how to automatically generate new things, including stories, villages, NPCs, the context of the world and more.
The game will be a multiplayer multiplayer title where you can play with other people and bring the city and the villagers of someone else in your game. Heimerl said that the game was around 70% doen and that the team produces more content and polish. They take advantage of AI to produce more, and they started testing the game with other players. A public test could arrive in the second half.
And now hiring talents gets easier, Heimerl said. And with $ 5.7 million in the bank, it could be even easier.
“Maybe people can build cheap games, realize dreams with a little game,” he said. “It’s about where we come from.”
