The company, which is based in Santa Monica and Seattle, was officially incorporated last year and emerged from stealth mode to announce the new funding.
Chief Executive Joe Tung said the company chose to formally reveal itself in order to put Theorycraft “on the map for talent” as it builds its core team of employees.
Theorycraft already boasts an impressive roster of industry veterans as its founding members. Tung formerly served as executive vice president of the “League of Legends” franchise at Riot Games Inc. Co-founders Michael Evans, Mike Tipul, Moby Francke and Areeb Pirani have all managed teams at Riot or other major game studios.
Tung said “getting back to being close to the game” was a key impetus driving the formation of the new studio.
“When you look at the founding team, we’ve done free-to-play on the PC, we’ve done AAA console games, we’ve worked on some of the biggest games in the world,” he said. “Building something from scratch is kind of the last frontier.”
The company said it plans to create “competitive (player-versus-player) experiences that are built to last,” though it did not give further details about what gamers can expect from its first title.
Tung said the company’s name gives players a clue about the type of games they might expect the studio to produce.
In video game lingo, “theorycraft” refers to the sometimes-obsessive process players go through to figure out the best strategy and tactics to succeed within the parameters set by game developers.
“We think games serve a broad range of human needs,” Tung said. “We are specifically focused on serving the needs of belonging and mastery.”
Games that inspire players to theorycraft new strategies tend to be ones that foster a strong sense of community and keep players engaged for years, he said.
Tung said Theorycraft has been working on its first game for about five months and aims to bring it to market within the next two years. He said the Series A round is meant to fully fund development of the company’s first title.
The funding was led by Chinese video game publisher and internet services company NetEase Inc., with participation from New Enterprise Associates, Bitkraft Ventures, SISU Game Ventures and Santa Monica-based Griffin Gaming Partners.
