How is Artie changing the mobile gaming landscape. What makes Artie’s games unique in the market. Why are high-profile investors backing this LA-based startup. How does Artie plan to integrate NFTs into its gaming ecosystem.
Artie’s Groundbreaking Funding and Vision
Artie, a Los Angeles-based gaming startup, has recently secured a significant funding round of $35.9 million. This investment comes from a roster of high-profile backers, including NBA star Kevin Durant and music industry mogul Scooter Braun. The company’s mission? To deliver “mobile games that hit different” by revolutionizing how players access and experience mobile gaming content.
The funding news, revealed through a regulatory filing, builds upon Artie’s previous $10 million seed round announced eight months ago. That initial investment saw participation from notable figures such as Zynga founder Mark Pincus, Warner Music Group, and the Winklevoss twins.
Innovative Technology: Breaking Down App Store Barriers
At the core of Artie’s innovation is its proprietary technology that allows for the creation of mobile games that can be played instantly, without the need for downloads through traditional app stores like Apple’s App Store or Google Play. This approach has the potential to disrupt the current mobile gaming ecosystem by eliminating barriers to entry for players and reducing reliance on major platform gatekeepers.
CEO Ryan Horrigan has ambitious claims for the quality of Artie’s games, stating, “We can deliver something that feels as good as a Nintendo Switch game, but it requires no hardware or app download whatsoever.” This bold statement sets high expectations for the gameplay experience Artie aims to provide.
The Benefits of Instant Playability
- Reduced friction for player onboarding
- Potential for wider game distribution
- Lower development costs by avoiding platform-specific optimizations
- Increased accessibility across devices
The Artieverse: More Than Just Games
While details about Artie’s projects have been largely kept under wraps, the company’s website and Discord server offer tantalizing glimpses into what they call the “Artieverse.” This concept appears to be Artie’s take on the increasingly popular idea of a metaverse – a collective virtual shared space.
The Artieverse is set to encompass a range of products, including games and “rare digital collectibles (NFTs).” This approach aligns with the growing trend of integrating blockchain technology and digital ownership into gaming experiences.
Upcoming Titles and Collaborations
Two games have been previewed so far:
- “Run the Table”
- “Dance Battle”
Additionally, Artie has announced NFT collaborations with Venezuelan artist Chocotoy and Hollywood-based illustrator Junkyard, hinting at a diverse range of artistic styles within the Artieverse.
NFT Integration: A New Frontier for Mobile Gaming
The incorporation of NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) into Artie’s gaming ecosystem represents a significant step towards blending gaming with digital ownership and potentially creating new revenue streams. But how exactly will NFTs enhance the gaming experience?
NFTs could allow players to truly own in-game assets, trade them on open marketplaces, and potentially use them across different games within the Artieverse. This level of interoperability and ownership is a key selling point for many blockchain-based gaming projects.
Potential Uses of NFTs in Artie’s Games
- Unique character skins or avatars
- Exclusive in-game items or power-ups
- Digital collectibles tied to game achievements
- Access passes to special events or game modes
The Team Behind Artie
While much of the spotlight has been on Artie’s high-profile investors, it’s important to consider the team driving the company’s vision forward. Co-founder Armando McIntyre-Kirwin has been active on the company’s Discord server, engaging with the community and sharing insights into their plans.
McIntyre-Kirwin’s statement that “The Artieverse will contain a multitude of styles so there will be something for everyone!” suggests a commitment to diversity and inclusivity in their game offerings. This approach could help Artie appeal to a broad audience and stand out in the crowded mobile gaming market.
Market Potential and Challenges
The mobile gaming industry is a lucrative but highly competitive space. Artie’s approach of bypassing traditional app stores could give them a significant advantage, but it also presents unique challenges. How will Artie ensure discoverability of their games without the visibility provided by app store listings?
Additionally, while the integration of NFTs and blockchain technology is exciting for some, it remains a controversial topic in the gaming community. Artie will need to carefully balance the implementation of these features to avoid alienating potential players who are skeptical of crypto-related gaming elements.
Key Market Factors to Consider
- Growing global mobile gaming market
- Increasing interest in blockchain gaming and NFTs
- Potential regulatory challenges surrounding crypto assets
- Competition from established mobile gaming companies
The Future of Artie and Mobile Gaming
As Artie continues to develop its technology and games, the company’s progress could have far-reaching implications for the mobile gaming industry. If successful, Artie’s model could inspire other developers to explore alternative distribution methods and challenge the dominance of traditional app stores.
The integration of NFTs and the creation of the Artieverse also position the company at the forefront of the evolving conversation around digital ownership and virtual economies in gaming. As these concepts become more mainstream, Artie could find itself well-positioned to capitalize on emerging trends.
Potential Impacts on the Gaming Industry
- Shift away from app store dependence
- Increased adoption of blockchain technology in gaming
- New monetization models for developers
- Enhanced player ownership and engagement
As Artie moves forward with its ambitious plans, the gaming industry will be watching closely. The success or failure of their approach could signal a new chapter in mobile gaming, one that blends instant accessibility with the cutting-edge possibilities of blockchain technology and digital ownership.
Investor Confidence and Future Funding
The substantial $35.9 million funding round Artie has secured is a strong vote of confidence from investors in the company’s vision and potential. This level of investment suggests that Artie has been able to demonstrate significant progress or promise since its initial seed round.
Interestingly, regulatory filings indicate that Artie may be looking to raise an additional $805,900. This suggests that the company has ambitious plans that require substantial capital to execute. But what could this additional funding be earmarked for?
Possible Uses for Additional Funding
- Expansion of the development team
- Marketing and user acquisition efforts
- Further technology development and infrastructure scaling
- Securing high-profile partnerships or IP licenses
The involvement of celebrity investors like Kevin Durant and Scooter Braun also adds an interesting dimension to Artie’s potential. These connections could potentially be leveraged for marketing purposes or to secure valuable partnerships in the entertainment industry.
Technical Challenges and Innovations
Delivering high-quality gaming experiences without the need for app downloads is no small feat. Artie’s claim that they can provide Nintendo Switch-level quality through this method is particularly bold. So, what kind of technical innovations might be required to achieve this?
One possibility is that Artie is leveraging advanced cloud gaming technology, similar to services like Google Stadia or Amazon Luna. This would allow for complex games to run on remote servers, with only the video and control inputs being streamed to the player’s device.
Potential Technical Solutions
- Advanced cloud gaming infrastructure
- Optimized game engines for browser-based play
- Novel compression algorithms for efficient data streaming
- Hybrid solutions combining local and cloud processing
The success of Artie’s technology could have implications beyond gaming, potentially influencing how other types of applications are delivered and consumed on mobile devices.
Community Building and Player Engagement
Artie’s active Discord server and engagement with potential players suggest a strong focus on community building. In the competitive world of mobile gaming, fostering a dedicated player base can be crucial for long-term success.
The company’s approach to integrating NFTs and creating the Artieverse concept also aligns with current trends in community-driven development and player ownership. By giving players a stake in the game ecosystem through NFTs, Artie could create a more engaged and invested user base.
Strategies for Community Engagement
- Regular developer updates and previews
- Community-driven decision making for game features
- Player-created content integration
- Exclusive events or rewards for active community members
As Artie continues to develop its games and platform, maintaining open lines of communication with its growing community will likely be key to refining their offerings and building a loyal player base.
The mobile gaming landscape is on the cusp of potential major shifts, with companies like Artie leading the charge towards new models of distribution, gameplay, and player engagement. As the company moves forward with its ambitious plans, industry observers and gamers alike will be watching closely to see if Artie can deliver on its promises and truly revolutionize the mobile gaming experience.
Artie Mobile Gaming and NFT Startup Raises $35.9 Million
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Harri Weber
Harri is dot.LA’s senior finance reporter. She previously worked for Gizmodo, Fast Company, VentureBeat and Flipboard. Find her
on Twitter and send tips on L.A. startups and venture capital to [email protected].
Artie, the Los Angeles-based gaming startup backed by NBA star Kevin Durant and Taylor Swift’s nemesis Scooter Braun, raised nearly $36 million this month to deliver “mobile games that hit different,” according to a regulatory filing made public this week.
Eight months ago, Artie revealed it was building three cross-platform titles and a software development kit (SDK) to help developers create mobile games that play automatically — without requiring a download through Apple or Google’s app stores. At the time the company also announced a $10 million seed round from Durant, Braun, Zynga founder Mark Pincus, Warner Music Group, and the Winklevoss twins.
“We can deliver something that feels as good as a Nintendo Switch game, but it requires no hardware or app download whatsoever,” CEO Ryan Horrigan told GamesBeat in February. Since then, much of the firm’s work has been under wraps.
Artie declined to comment on the new funds, but it’s likely that some of its preexisting investors chipped in. Early-stage VCs and angel investors often participate in later funding rounds to retain their stakes in companies as they grow. Filings also showed Artie may be looking to raise an additional $805,900.
The three-year-old company’s psychedelic website remains sparse on details to this day, teasing “the greatest party on your phone” and “rare digital collectibles (NFTs).” But a peek at Artie’s Discord server offers a vivid look at its plans for the “Artieverse” — a name for a series of products that unmistakably taps into the hype of the metaverse (a.k.a. a giant digital or 3D space).
Posts on the server preview two titles, “Run the Table” and “Dance Battle,” as well as NFT collaborations with Venezuelan artist Chocotoy and Hollywood-based illustrator Junkyard.
“The Artieverse will contain a multitude of styles so there will be something for everyone! We have huge artist partnerships in the works to share with you soon,” said co-founder Armando McIntyre-Kirwin.
But the best look we have yet at Artie’s NFT-laden gaming experience is a teaser of Run the Table’s intro screen.
What is @theartieverse up to? The LA startup teased instantly playable, NFT-packed games. We’ve learned it’s raising a fat funding round this month, and here’s a preview of ‘Run the Table’ via discord:\n#cryptoartpic.twitter.com/izh3w3bmjl
— Harrison Weber (@Harrison Weber)
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Samson Amore
Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.
la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.
Samson Amore
According to a Forbes report last April, both the viewership and dollars behind women’s sports at a collegiate and professional level are growing.
In 2022, the first 32 games of the NCAA tournament had record attendance levels, breaking records set back in 2004, and largely driven by the new and rapidly growing women’s NCAA tournament. WNBA openers this year saw a 21% spike in attendance, with some teams including the LA Sparks reporting triple-digit ticket sales growth, about 121% over 2022’s total. In 2023, the average size of an LA Sparks crowd swelled to 10,396 people, up from 4,701 people.
Women make up half the population, but “also 50% of the folks that are walking into the stadium at Dodger Stadium, or your NFL fans are just about 50% women,” noted Erin Storck, a panelist and senior analyst at Los Angeles-based Elysian Park Ventures.
Storck added that in heterosexual households, women generally manage most of the family’s money, giving them huge purchasing power, a potential advantage for female-run leagues.
“There’s an untapped revenue opportunity,” she noted.
In the soccer world, Los Angeles-based women’s soccer team Angel City FC has put in the work to become a household name, not just in LA County but across the nation. At an LA Tech Week panel hosted by Athlete Strategies about investing in sports, Angel City head of strategy and chief of staff Kari Fleischauer said that years before launching the women’s National Women’s Soccer League team, Angel City FC was pounding the pavement letting people know about the excitement ladies soccer can bring. She noted community is key, and that fostering a sense of engagement and safety at the team’s home venue, BMO stadium (formerly Banc of California Stadium), is one reason fans keep coming back.
Adding free metro rides to BMO stadium and private rooms for nursing fans to breastfeed or fans on the spectrum to avoid sensory overload, were just some of the ways ACFC tried to include its community in the concept of its stadium, Fleischauer said.
She noted, though, that roughly 46% of Angel City fans are “straight white dudes hanging out with their bros.”
“Particularly [on] the woman’s side, I’d like to think we do a better job of making sure that there’s spaces for everyone,” Fleischauer told the audience. “One thing we realize is accessibility is a huge thing.”
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Samson Amore
Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College. Send tips or pitches to [email protected] and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.
Samson Amore
At Lowercarbon Capital’s LA Tech Week event Thursday, the synergy between the region’s aerospace industry and greentech startups was clear.
The event sponsored by Lowercarbon, Climate Draft (and the defunct Silicon Valley Bank’s Climate Technology & Sustainability team) brought together a handful of local startups in Hawthorne not far from LAX, and many of the companies shared DNA with arguably the region’s most famous tech resident: SpaceX.
Here’s a look at the greentech startups that pitched during the Tech Week event, and how they think what they’re building could help solve the climate crisis.
Arbor: Based in El Segundo, this year-old startup is working to convert organic waste into energy and fresh water. At the same time, it also uses biomass carbon removal and storage to remove carbon from the atmosphere and sequester it in an attempt to avoid further damaging the earth’s ozone layer. At the Tech Week event Thursday, Arbor CEO Brad Hartwig told a stunned crowd that Arbor aims to remove about five billion tons of organic waste from landfills and turn that into about 6 PWh, or a quarter of the global electricity need, each year. Hartwig is an alumni of SpaceX; he was a manufacturing engineer on the Crew Dragon engines from 2016-2018 and later a flight test engineer at Kitty Hawk.
Antora: Sunnyvale-based Antora Energy was founded in 2017, making it one of the oldest companies on the pitching block during the event.
Backed by investors including the National Science Foundation and Los Angeles-based Overture VC, Antora has raised roughly $57 million to date, most recently a $50 million round last February. Chief operating officer Justin Briggs said Antora’s goal is to modernize and popularize thermal energy storage using ultra-hot carbon. Massive heated carbon blocks can give off thermal energy, which Antora’s proprietary batteries then absorb and store as energy. It’s an ambitious goal, but one the world needs at scale to green its energy footprint. According to Briggs, “the biggest challenge is how can we turn back variable intermittent renewable electricity into something that’s reliable and on demand, so we can use it to provide energy to everything we need.”
Arc: Hosting the panel was Arc, an electric boating company that’s gained surprising momentum, moving from design to delivering its first e-boats in just two years of existence. Founded in 2021, the company’s already 70 employees strong and has already sold some of its first e-boats to customers willing to pay the luxury price tag, CTO Ryan Cook said Thursday.
Cook said that to meet the power needs of a battery-powered speedboat, the Arc team designed the vehicle around the battery pack with the goal of it being competitive with gas boats when compared to range and cost of gas. But on the pricing side, it’s not cheap. Arc’s flagship vessel, the Arc One is expected to cost roughly $300,000. During the panel, Cook compared the boat to being “like an early Tesla Roadster.” To date Arc Boats has raised just over $35 million, according to PitchBook, from investors including Kevin Durant, Will Smith and Sean “Diddy” Combs.
Clarity Technology: Carbon removal startup Clarity is based in LA and was founded by Yale graduate and CEO Glen Meyerowitz last year. Clarity is working to make “gigaton solutions for gigaton problems.” Their aim? To remove up to 2,000 billion pounds of carbon from the atmosphere through direct air capture, a process which uses massive fans to move chemicals that capture CO2. But the challenge, Meyerowitz noted in his speech, is doing this at scale in a way that makes an actual dent in the planet’s emissions while also efficiently using the electricity needed to do so.
Meyerowitz spent nearly five years working as an engineer for SpaceX in Texas, and added he’s looking to transfer those learnings into Clarity.
Parallel Systems: Based in Downtown LA’s Arts District, this startup is building zero-emission rail vehicles that are capable of long-haul journeys otherwise done by a trucking company. The estimated $700 billion trucking industry, Parallel Systems CEO Matt Soule said, is ripe for an overhaul and could benefit from moving some of its goods off-road to electric railcars. According to Soule, Parallel’s electric battery-powered rail vehicles use 25% of the energy a semi truck uses, and at a competitive cost. Funded in part by a February 2022 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, Parallel Systems has raised about $57 million to date. Its most recent venture funding round was a $49 million Series A led by Santa Monica-based VC Anthos Capital. Local VCs including Riot Ventures and Santa Monica-based Embark Ventures are also backers of Parallel.
Terra Talent: Unlike the rest of the startups pitching at the Tech Week event, Terra Talent was focused on building teams rather than technology. Founder Dolly Singh worked at SpaceX, Oculus and Citadel as a headhunter, and now runs Terra, a talent and advisory firm that helps companies recruit top talent in the greentech space. But, she said, she’s concerned that all the work these startups are doing won’t matter unless we very quickly turn around the current trendlines. “Earth will shake us off like and she will do just fine in 10,000 years,” she said. “It’s our way of living, everything we love is actually here on earth… there’s nothing I love on Mars,” adding that she’s hopeful the startups that pitched during the event will be instrumental in making sure the planet stays habitable for a little while longer.
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Artie: A New Alternative to Google and Apple
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Iapri Summerville May 8th, 2023 – 6:02 PM
Artie aims to change the mobile gaming market by utilizing an alternative approach to playing games. It wants to offer a myriad of free, high concept, quality mobile games with deep gameplay across all genres that players can access by clicking a link from a social media page instead of needing to download it.
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Ryan Horrigan started working on Artie nearly four years ago.
He wanted to give players the ability to directly play free mobile games without having to go through Google or Apple to do so. Horrigan chose this method of business after discovering how much these megacorporations charged the developers to distribute their products.
Typically, many developers tend to go along with Google and Apple because it is seen as the only way of garnering the attention of potential customers. However, this method means that developers must give up a significant amount of royalties to the companies since both take commissions from the total revenue from paid mobile games and in-app purchases. Apple, especially, has a tight grip on the situation since it is the only platform where iOS users can access applications to use on their device.
Rather than go through that process, Horrigan wanted Artie to be a hybrid between cloud gaming and mobile gaming. This business model made sure that players were able to access Artie’s mobile games without having to download them while avoiding having to cede parts of profits to Apple and Google.
Horrigan figured that since most youth spent most of their time on social media that providing a link to these games pasted on various social media pages would be the most ideal method of distribution. Furthermore, Artie can retain all rights to the games they develop specifically for the platform.
The first game featured on the platform was Pong Legends which is a mashup between fighting and pong games. Essentially, players operate anthropomorphic cartoon animals and go against each other in beer pong. The game offers various power-ups, spells, and superpowers that players collect to win the game. Ryan Horrigan designed Pong Legends to resonate with younger audiences and be social in nature, so that the game could maintain retention. The game is currently in its alpha stage, but it will soon be in beta in the near future.
However, the game is not projected to launch until later on in the year. Meanwhile, Artie is developing other games that will be available on the platform for all who use the service to play.
With the mobile gaming market being quite competitive, Artie has some other challenges to overcome in order to reach new audiences. Since the platform aims to access players directly through social media, there are plans to leverage large influencers that will direct more potential customers to their product. Further, Horrigan wants to collaborate with many third-party studios in order to scale his business once Artie is offered more opportunities to grow. Currently, the Artie team consists of fifty members with developers and artists with backgrounds from PlayStation, Activision, Electronic Arts, Zynga, and Disney.
Artie has many investors backing its development: some names include YouTube founder Chard Hurley, Zynga founder Mark Pincus, Roblox Chief Product Officer Manuel Bronstein, and former TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer.
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About the company — Arti
Most Arti development kits are based on figurines and blanks for decoration made of natural clay, made in our ceramic workshop and fired in a special kiln at a temperature of more than 1000˚C. All Arti clay products are hand-sculpted by craftsmen, so each art kit is unique! All products are manufactured in the ancient Russian city of Smolensk, located on the banks of the Dnieper River, 400 km southwest of Moscow.
Real clay
Arti cares about children, so we use only the highest quality materials and components when developing and manufacturing products. Clay is a sedimentary rock that appeared on Earth many millions of years ago. When clay and water are mixed, a dough-like plastic mass is formed, suitable for further processing, for example, modeling and firing.
The clay that Arti uses in the manufacture of kits for creativity does not contain chemical additives and is 100% pure natural material. We use natural red clay, products from which acquire a characteristic terracotta color when fired.
Handmade is the main difference between Arti
Arti has a full cycle production – from the extraction of clay, its preparation, modeling and firing of products to their assembly and packaging into sets. Although we try to use the most modern technologies and have automated many processes, Arti consciously uses only manual labor in the creation of clay figures. Our masters are professional clay sculptors who create wonderful and unique masterpieces. By the way, handwork is also used when painting the eyes of most of our figurines, which enlivens them and gives them additional attractiveness.
Arti technologies.
Our little secrets!
Our main series of DIY kits, Explore Nature, Winter Tale, are based on a handmade flat clay toy.
How it happens: after rolling out the clay layer, figures are cut out of it using special forms, which are decorated with various decorative elements (the principle is the same as when rolling out dough and cutting, for example, cookies). It is very convenient to paint flat clay figurines with acrylic paints and hang them on the wall. Our sets “Great gift” and “Funny bells” are created according to a different principle – based on voluminous clay figurines. All Arti products can be played with or gifted to someone!
Clay toys.
Why do children love Arti products so much?
Man began to use clay products a very long time ago. And clay toys have been accompanying children’s games since time immemorial. It is very interesting to observe how, with the help of the art of a master, water and temperature, a product is obtained from a shapeless piece of clay, ready to serve a person indefinitely. We take a very responsible approach to the creation of new Arti products, which are created taking into account the recommendations of child psychologists and in cooperation with children’s educational institutions: art schools and creative studios.
Another prerequisite is preliminary testing with the help of master classes for a large number of children. That is why children love Arti products so much!
Benefits of working with Arti kits for children
Our kits are aimed at developing creative abilities in children from 3 years old. Creative activities are a great opportunity for the rapid development of a child. In the process of creative activity, children develop memory, attention, fine motor skills of fingers, imagination and spatial thinking, which has a beneficial effect on brain development. And also, when working with Arti sets for creativity, the child develops accuracy, perseverance and diligence!
Arti – all inclusive!
About Arti kits
We create kits for creativity on an all-inclusive basis – that is, everything you need to create a finished product is already included in each kit. For Arti sets, we select only the highest quality materials suitable for children. The principle that we always adhere to when developing Arti sets is the combination of different materials to create a finished product: clay figurine and woolen threads, satin ribbons and paper, acrylic paints and sparkles.
This is very good for developing a child who combines the processes of play and creativity! Our kits are distinguished by an exceptionally attractive bright design and high-quality packaging, which always bears the motto Arti Grow by playing! – we believe that the combination of play and creativity is the best way to promote the development of a small child. And you?
Artie’s Dream Game – play online for free
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Controls in the game
Hold down the left mouse button and move the boy named Artie from magic clothespin to clothespin, collecting carrots along the way. Also follow the prompts on the screen. You must reach the portal in order to successfully complete the round. Below, we offer you our video walkthrough of the game so that you can always quickly go through the place where you are stuck for a long time.
Description: how to play
How to run flash game
Download Mozilla Firefox portable browser to run flash games online.
