Spectarium raises $5.3M to develop cross-platform ARPG, Myths

Spectarium has raised roughly $5.3 million (€5 million) in seed funding to develop its first cross-platform action RPG, Myths. Finnish developer’s debut title will leverage AI to customize the dungeon-crawling gameplay and setting to each player’s tastes. While the world will remain rooted in ancient mythologies, the storyline, encounters, themes and setting will change dynamically.

The world of Myths will continue to evolve as the game generates new content for players to discover. Player behavior, characters, equipment, novel strategies and infusion mechanic will feed Spectarium’s content generation algorithm to tailor the experience to individual preferences.

Myths will also give players the ability to shape the gameplay and world. Players that find and defeat legendary new bosses can own, upgrade and make them available to the wider player base. In turn, Myths will honor these players in-game so others can recognize their achievement.

“Eight years ago, the Spectarium core team came together with a shared mission: to create a game envisioned by our community. This journey fostered a deep trust with our global player base and solidified our team’s passion for crafting games that resonate. While we remain community-centric, the studio has evolved and is committed to developing cross-platform, mass-market games that captivate gamers worldwide. By merging standout visuals with generated content, we aim to craft unique and endless gameplay experiences,” said Romain Schneider, CEO at Spectarium.

Spectarium’s seed funding

Bitkraft Ventures led the round and Delphi Digital and Framework Ventures participated.

“At Bitkraft, we believe that content generation is one of the most promising forms of AI-enabled creativity and a paradigm shift in studio economics. Spectarium’s approach unlocks highly personalized and endlessly customizable gameplay experiences while expanding on proven ARPG systems with the team’s deep genre expertise and harnessing the global IP of ancient myths to engage diverse player bases across platforms,” said Jasper Brand, partner at Bitkraft Ventures. 

Alongside Schneider, Spectarium was founded by Mark Peterson and Avi & Gabi Shalel, cofounders of Raid: Shadow Legends developer Plarium. Spectarium’s team has decades of experience with top developers like EA, Epic Games, Riot Games and Square Enix.

The company plans to use this funding to scale the team ahead of a 2024 soft launch in select markets. Employee retention is a top priority for the company. Spectarium boasts a 97% retention rate for employees who have been with the developer for at least one year.