Versed raised a $1.7M pre-seed from Google's Gradient to turn written stories into 3D RPGs

Platform that turns text stories into 3D role-playing games with turn-based combat and branching dialogue, built in Unity.

That storytellers such as game masters and authors will write a story and get a 3D role-playing game, with Versed taking a cut of creators' subscriptions.

€1.6M ($1.7M) pre-seed led by Gradient Ventures, with Cherry Ventures and angels from Unity, Twitch, Remote and Framer

Versed was founded in the Netherlands four months earlier by CEO Robert Gaal, a former Googler with several startups, and CTO Cat Burton, a former Unity developer. Its remote-first team had grown to seven people across the UK, Denmark, Bulgaria and the US.

The platform uses an LLM, currently OpenAI's GPT-4, to summarize a creator's descriptions, then procedural generation to build locations and match characters to in-house artists' assets. Versed built it so it can swap to another LLM, and plays through the Unity engine initially on Mac and PC.

As of June 2023 Versed was working with 10 creators in an early alpha, planned a private beta at New York Comic Con and a full public launch in the second half of 2024.

Burton says building games demands code, art, audio and marketing skills, a barrier Versed aims to remove for writers.

Many of the targeted creators, such as game masters who live-stream on Twitch, already write interactive stories but have never published digitally.

Generative AI had become a buzzword that VCs were pouring cash into, with Salesforce Ventures doubling its generative AI fund to $500M the same week.

Generative AI lowers the cost of making a game, but a platform that wants creators to earn a living still has to solve the business model, not just the demo.

As of 14 June 2023, Versed was an early alpha with 10 creators and a seven-person team, depending on a library of in-house assets rather than generating all assets itself. The business model was unfinished, and the product claims are the founders'.