Theorycraft Games is an independent game studio on a mission to make deep, 10,000-hour games that are just better when played with friends. Theorycraft was formed in December 2020 by a founding team that includes Joe Tung, Mike Tipul, Michael Evans, and Areeb Pirani - former studio leaders at Riot Games, Bungie, and Blizzard Entertainment. Collectively they led the development of games such as League of Legends, Halo, Destiny, Overwatch, and VALORANT.
Theorycraft’s first game in development, codenamed Project Loki, is a group adventure, a competitive sandbox, and a highlights factory, all at once. It’s a blend of genres players have described as “League meets Apex meets Smash.”
“We’ve wanted to build a game in partnership with players. It’s been great to get a chance to do that. A humbling lesson is that we had a lot of swagger out of the gate about how fast it would take. Getting the game right and making it something people will love in the long run is more important and has taken us a little longer. Luckily, we have AccelByte to help. AccelByte’s offerings are very robust, which ensures stability and reliability, and contributes to a positive user experience for Project Loki players.”
- Michael Evans, CTO
Challenges
- maintain a small organizational size with effective communication, teamwork, and streamlined processes
- focus on core game development while relying on external expertise for other work
- conducting external playtests and gathering iterative feedback
Solutions
- Implemented AccelByte Development Toolkit (ADT) to help get builds into the hands of their players faster to help with gameplay iteration
- Developed ADT for twice-daily playtests distributing builds to all of their players
Utilized AccelByte Gaming Services Monetization to store in-game items, implement virtual currency
- Integrated Neon Pay as a payment platform
Results
- Accelerated development timelines with faster iteration cycles
- Reduced the work of at least three full-time developers over at least a year
- Ability to pivot swiftly in response to changing requirements
