Quick take:
- Soba wants to build an open world where anyone can build games.
- Creators can build their own games on Soba by configuring elements built by others or visually creating custom logic.
- Soba is free of charge and runs on mobile, PC and Mac.
Web3 game creator platform, Soba, has raised $13.5 million in a funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from FTX Ventures, Cherry Ventures, Point Nine Capital, and TQ Ventures.
Soba provides no-code tools that enable creators to build their own games on any device. The platform aims to build an open world where everyone can express their creativity through game creation and inspire more gamers to become creators.
The platform is co-founded by Juha Paananen and Florian Odronitz. Paananen was previously a co-founder of Nonstop Games, an HTML5 game company. He had a stint at Cherry Ventures in Berlin and joined forces with Odronitz to start Soba in 2019. The company currently has 19 employees.
Multiplayer games are usually created by developers who know how to program, and game development tools tend to be complex but Soba wants to change that by allowing creators to configure elements built by others on Soba or visually create custom logic without prior knowledge of programming language.
The platform is currently free of charge and runs on PC and Mac, with support for Android and iOS coming later. Creators will be able to access Soba’s full suite of game creation tools on mobile.
Even though platforms like Roblox also allow users to program their own games, Panaanen noted that creators don’t get their fair share of the revenue from current games. Soba claims to be building a fair economy where creators receive a high-revenue share for their creations.
To create a monetisation model for game creators, Soba is incorporating blockchain and Web3 elements to its platform. With its shift towards Web3, Soba will enable both creators and gamers to have ownership of their digital assets such as NFTs, move these assets in and out of their games, and build new interactive experiences.
“The games being fun is where it starts. For us, Web3 is enabling a global payment system. We are not building play-to-earn games. We want to build something sustainable. We think there should be stronger monetization models for the creators,” Paananen told VentureBeat.
Even though Soba is built for Web3, it’s not a token-gated platform, giving anyone the opportunity to use its tools without restrictions.
“The barrier to entry for new game creators at the moment is huge, Soba changes this by building a simple yet very powerful no-code game builder and allowing its creators to own what they produce,” said Paul Murphy, partner at Lightspeed Ventures.
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