Stockholm-based mobile-friendly gaming platform Sceneri has raised $1.5 million in a seed round from SNÖ Ventures to encourage new-gen of creators whose imagination is higher than their code knowledge to come up with new games. The startup’s app is still in private beta but it will open up for users on the waiting list. The funding will feed the needs of this new platform to further its development towards its planned open beta in 2023.
The startup was founded in 2020 by Filip Lundgren – who oversaw Poppermost Productions in the development of SNOW for PS4 and PC as well as LootLocker, a live game backend service now serving as a separate entity – and Collin Bishop who previously oversaw the development of CRYENGINE while working at Crytek. The team includes veterans who have worked at Crytek, Arkane, Massive, Embark, Avalanche, and Nintendo.
Teodor Bjerrang, Founding Partner at SNÖ Ventures, which invests in visionary entrepreneurs leading early stage, transformative Nordic tech companies, said: “We invest in disruptive technologies and platforms with leaders who have deep experience in their field. Sceneri’s simple yet powerful platform will democratize game development so that anyone can release their creativity and create and distribute amazing experiences from almost any device, without prior experience. We believe that reducing the barriers to entry for game development will unleash a new generation of creators and innovative games.”
For the last two years, Sceneri has worked to support the no-code movement, creating a suite of development tools that enable the expression and creation of original ideas while eliminating the technical hurdles that previously held back many creators. Built on the concept of community iteration, the Sceneri platform offers a vast amount of projects and resources that users can play, remix, and share, allowing its community to express their creativity based on simple components and assets available from the Sceneri marketplace.
“What sets us apart is our meticulous attention to detail on an architectural and user experience level,” said Filip Lundgren, CTO, Sceneri. ”By revisiting and reinventing established game development norms, we are creating a uniquely intuitive app for a new generation of creators. We are drawing upon our collective experience of developing games, tools, and film to create a platform that scales by putting design and usability first.”
Collin Bishop, CEO, Sceneri explained: “Sceneri allows creators to access mobile-first tools for complete end-to-end game creation and publishing.The Sceneri platform features drag-and-drop game mechanics, asset streaming, embedded game services, publishing, and rich analytics, alongside a vast amount of assets and projects to remix and share. It’s an end-to-end platform that anyone, on almost any device, can use to create unique games and experiences.”
Sleek branding and a solid user experience are the two pillars that provide Sceneri with the elements to recruit creators and companies to the platform. The platform also provides integrated augmented reality development on-the-go and provides an environment for metaverse creation.
“When looking at competitors you will see older monolithic architecture designed for desktop game development that doesn’t scale to mobile devices nor the habits and expectations of the new generation of creators. With this in mind we have sought to reinvent game creation with new user experience patterns, keeping the install size of the package under 15mb and startup at 500 milliseconds,” said Lundgren.
Sceneri will grow the gaming platform on mobile, firstly on iOS, targeting iPads and iPhones. The platform is being optimized to target the full suite of available Apple devices, keeping the engine lightweight and modular to run on low to high-end hardware.
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